


Gathering Nebulas

by StoriesBeyondTheStars



Series: Contrasting Constellations [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Based on Season 1, Extreme slow burn, F/F, F/M, Family & Friendship, Found Family Dynamics, M/M, Other, all romances are very far down the line, angst & healing, the bigger focus is family and friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 265,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21797815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoriesBeyondTheStars/pseuds/StoriesBeyondTheStars
Summary: Lance just wanted to have some fun and do a bit of team bonding. He never expected to end up in space with his best friend, a tech genius who wasn’t quite what they seemed to be, his hero, his absolutely infuriating rival that confuses him a lot, a beautiful alien princess, her wacky advisor, and four space mice; chosen to pilot a legendary (lion shaped) weapon that could end a space war that has been raging for thousands of years.And yet, here he was.An AU novelization, expansion, and alteration of Voltron: Legendary Defender Season One.
Relationships: Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: Contrasting Constellations [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1570756
Comments: 323
Kudos: 203





	1. Prologue: How The Story Begins

“No matter what happens, always know that when you look up at the sky, I’ll be looking up at the same one with wherever I am.”  
  
Dark grey eyes lifted up to a sky that was familiar, but also oh-so different. Well, it wasn’t actually a sky, was it? There was no atmosphere to speak of, which was the reason for his clunky, yet high-tech, suit. It was much more streamlined than what the people who went into space long ago wore though.  
  
No matter how many times he ended up amongst the stars, he never once got tired of it. He wanted to see and explore as much of it as he could while he was still able to.  
  
Not that there weren’t things he missed about home too–so far away that it wasn’t even a speck amongst the sky. It truly made Shiro feel small.   
  
There was a loud clanking, and he turned his eyes down to the machine he was helping prop up across the icy blue and white surface of the moon they were on.  
  
“Easy, son. This ice is delicate,” the commander of their three-person mission reminded the youngest of them.  
  
From his point of view, he could see the brief roll of the boy’s eyes, and had to remind himself that Matt was barely out of the Garrison. As a secondary school that focused on space exploration and world security, the Galaxy Garrison only accepted the best of the best, and Matthew Holt was definitely one of them. No other 18-year-old that had just graduated would be accepted for a mission like this, and Matt was easily one of the most brilliant young men that Shiro ever had the pleasure to meet.  
  
Rumour had it that his younger sister, Katie, was just as smart, maybe even more-so. Given the family they came from, though, that wasn’t surprising.  
  
Some people whispered that the only reason Matt was on this mission in the first place was because the commander was his father, Samuel Holt. Maybe there was something to it, but Shiro knew that Sam wouldn’t have brought his son into space if he didn’t think he was the right person for it.  
  
Still, in moments like this, Matt’s age showed. He rolled his eyes at being told not to break the important ice, but still, he was excited too. "Amazing. Isn't this exciting, Shiro?"  
  
Shiro chuckled, maintaining his grip to keep the machine steady. “You’re a little more excited about ice than I’ve ever been.”  
  
He wasn’t a scientist by any means. He wasn’t necessarily interested in the composition of minerals on the ground, or anything like that. He was a pilot, and wanted to fly and explore the farthest reaches of the universe. Even though he knew that was a dream he wouldn’t get to pull off.  
  
“This is history in the making,” Sam pointed out to him as he helped stabilize the ice core for collection. “Not only have we traveled farther than any human ever has, but this ice could hold microscopic clues about the existence of life outside Earth!” The man’s eyes flashed with excitement.  
  
It was well known at the Garrison that Sam Holt, while brilliant, was a little obsessed with the idea of aliens. Shiro believed in them too, how could there not be anything else out there? The thought that they were the only things in existence was actually more alarming to him.  
  
Still, the Holts were on an entire different level in that belief and excitement.  
  
With steady hands as he worked, Matt said, "Think of it, Dad! We could use those clues to become the first people to meet aliens!” The excitement in his voice was almost palpable.  
  
"My life's work would be complete,” Sam said with a wistful sigh, and then glanced down at his son teasingly. “It would be my greatest pride and joy.”  
  
“Thanks, Dad,” Matt replied sarcastically.  
  
They carefully moved the collected samples to the cases that they needed to put it in to analyze back in their ship, which doubled as a livable habitat. Once the samples were secured, they moved them into their rover and climbed inside.  
  
Shiro moved to turn it on, when the ground beneath them started to rumble.  
  
“Is the rover okay?” Matt asked, a frown on his face.  
  
“That’s…not this.” Shiro pressed a few buttons, looking for the readouts of what was happening directly around them.  
  
“Seismic activity?” Sam suggested, narrowing his eyes at the instruments.  
  
Shiro’s stomach swooped nervously, he had a very bad feeling about this. “We should get back to the ship.” He pressed down on the accelerator and started to steer them towards the ship.  
  
The screams of shock that echoed through the car, and the sickly, intense violet light that they were surrounded with were the last things Shiro remembered before blacking out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Chapter Edited By:[Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon) & [MsBlueBell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsBluebell/)**


	2. The Great Escape

Flying in space was strange. Growing up, he always assumed that it would look like the stars were zooming by you in streaks of light. That actually wasn’t true at all. It barely seemed like they were moving at all. It was a strange feeling of being almost suspended in nothingness.

Of course that wasn’t entirely true, there was a large object growing nearer and nearer. It’s blue and white icy surfaces were absolutely breathtaking.

There was no time to ogle it though. They had a very important job to do. Clearing his throat dramatically, Lance pressed a button in front of him and began speaking. "Galaxy Garrison flight log 5-11-14. Begin descent to Kerberos for rescue mission."

His fingers curled around the controls in front of him as he started to accelerate down towards the surface of Pluto’s moon, the farthest that humanity had ever gone. The numbers in front of him told him that he was going a little too fast, but that was okay. Lance had seen this maneuver many times before, and he knew he could do it too.

Behind him, there was a snort as Hunk called out, “Lance, can you keep this thing straight?"

“Relax, Hunk,” Lance assured him, dark blue eyes focused on the moon below them, a confident smile crossing his lips. “I'm just getting a feel for the stick.”

“Right, sure,” Hunk replied sarcastically, looking over his own station. “You can’t go this fast this steeply. No one here can. Not even Griffin.”

Something irked in Lance’s chest, a scowl passing over his features. James Griffin may _now_ have the top spot, but that didn’t mean anything. He didn’t have it because he deserved it. He was just a huge suck up to the powers that be, something Hunk, his amigo, should absolutely know.

Feeling positively impish, he tightened his hold on the stick. “I mean it's not like I did _this_!" He pressed the controls down, causing the ship to accelerate more. “Or this!” He jerked the stick to the left, causing the ship to do the same.

Hunk groaned miserably behind him, and he was sure that his shaggy black hair would have stuck to his forehead if it wasn’t for the orange headband holding it back as he desperately fought the wave of nausea that was growing within him. God, he really hated flying.

He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for Lance to stop, but it only seemed to get worse. He opened them as things levelled off slightly, his stomach rolling horribly as his heart leapt in his chest. “Okay, look. Unless you want to wipe my last two meals out of every little crack in this thing, you better knock it off!” Why was Lance _like_ this?

At that same moment, there was a ping on the other side of their ship. The third member of their team twisted to look around from his station. "We've picked up a distress beacon!"

“Alright!” Lance said, trying to keep his excitement in check. They were really going to do this. He straightened his shoulders, reminding himself to act cool, calm, and collected. He didn’t want anyone else to know about the nervousness welling up within him.

Instead, he arched his eyebrows and glanced at the others with him. He could do this. There was no way he couldn’t. “Look alive, team! Pidge, track coordinates."

“Copy,” he replied. As they approached the moon, everything seemed to be going smoothly. Lance couldn’t wait for everyone else to see.

The ship suddenly started to shake, their instruments clattering around them as the ship groaned. Hunk squeezed his eyes shut and made a sound that was _nearly_ identical to that, and called out, “Really? Come on! Knock it off, Lance!” He was going to _kill_ him when they were on stable ground again.

Quickly gazing over the instruments and monitors in front of him, Lance scowled a bit and looked back at him. “This one’s on you, buddy.” He glanced at the monitors again. “We've got a hydraulic stabilizer out.” He knew what that was, of course, but how to fix it was the job of the engineer, he was the pilot and in charge.

Seriously, Hunk was one of the best engineers he knew, but he really needed to get it together.

As Hunk moved the monitor closer to him, the combination of G-Forces, the ship’s shaking, and his nerves make his stomach twist. His hands shook a bit, his brain processing what he was seeing as he felt bile creeping up his throat. “Oh no.”

“Oh no? Fix now, puke later!” Lance snapped at him. Come on, they had to do this. There was no other option!

"I lost contact!” Pidge called out, her fingers tapping over the screens in front of her. She bit her lip as she waited for the results of their communication loss to come back. It only took a millisecond, but it seemed to take forever. She pushed her glasses back up onto her eyes, the shaking almost knocking them off. “The shaking is interfering with our sensors."

“Come on, Hunk!” Lance cried out to him, and sure, Pidge knew she wasn’t exactly _good_ with people, but she could tell he was getting annoyed. She was also pretty sure that him jerking around the ship earlier was what caused this problem in the first place though.

“It’s not responding!” Pidge jerked with surprise as Hunk suddenly ran to the station beside her. Wouldn’t it be better to have that spot by the actual engineer?

“Oh, never mind, fellas!” Lance called out, a visual indicating where the distress call was coming from appeared in front of him. “Thar she blows. Preparing for approach on visual.”

“Uh,” Pidge looked up at him. “I really don’t think that’s advisable with our current mechanical—“ Hunk threw up in the compartment beside her, causing her to grimace “—and gastrointestinal issues." 

“Agreed,” Hunk managed to breathe out before another wave of nausea ran through him and he hunkered down again.

“Stop worrying,” Lance protested, more than a bit annoyed. These were his teammates and they were supposed to have his back and listen to him. He could feel Pidge’s eyes burning into him, and he didn’t know the little guy well, but still knew from experience not to piss off the small ones. “This baby can take it. Can’t you, Champ?” He reached forward to pat the dashboard, and the entire ship shuddered violently. Shit.

Nerves creeping up on him, Lance forced a smile on his face and said, “Uh, see. She was just…she was nodding. Yeah, nodding.” He cleared his throat, trying to focus. He could do this. They were so close to the end of this. All they had to do was get to the team they were sent to rescue. “Pidge, hail down to them and let them know their ride is here."

She stared at him for a moment in disbelief before groaning and trying to reach the communications microphone. Realizing that she was just too short to reach it (weren’t these things supposed to be universally compatible), she undid her harness and climbed up onto the seat. “Attention lunar vessel—“ A cry of surprise left her when the ship jerked again and she went tumbling onto the floor, her head crashing into one of the outcroppings, pain surging through her.

“What are you doing?” Lance yelled, definitely unimpressed and exasperated. Pidge wanted to fight him. “Buckle your belt! And Hunk, stop that shaking!”

Hunk’s hands shook as he grimaced at the yelling. “I’m _trying_.” He truly was, but it was hard since his heart felt like it was going to jump out of his chest, and he kinda felt like he was getting tunnel vision. He wasn’t sure if it was him or the ship that was shaking so badly.

The nausea welled up within him again, and Hunk found himself doubling over and puking into the gearbox. He was going to regret that _so_ much later. In his peripheral vision, he saw Pidge climb back into his seat, put on his belt, and grabbed for the radio again.

As he climbed back into his own seat, Hunk couldn’t help but think that, technically speaking, if they stopped now, the mission would be a failure, but it wouldn’t be that _bad_ of a failure.

"Attention lunar vessel, this is Galaxy Garrison Rescue Craft One Victor Six Three Tango. Coming in for landing and extraction,” Pidge said before lowering her voice and glowering at Lance, “against crew recommendations."

Hands tightening around the controls, Lance tried to keep focused on what was at hand. He ran through his mind how he could possibly fix this. Nothing came to mind, and as he stared at the surface of the moon closing in on them, he came to a decision.

He could do this.

“No time for your mutinous comments now, Pidge. They're going under and we're going in.” There was _no_ way that he was going to fail. No way at all.

Lance urged the ship down and forward, streaking past the icy mountains of Kerberos. There was an archway in front of him, and he pushed on towards it.

"Look out for that overhang!" Pidge called out from behind him.

“No worries!” Lance looked back at him and grinned. “My first year in flight school, you know what they called me? They called me 'The Tailor' because of how I thread the needle.”

His confidence came rushing back to him. He could absolutely do this. He had practiced time and time again for this. “I’m going in!”

Lips spread into a grin, Lance maneuvered the ship around, spiralling his way through the obstacle like he had seen before. He watched those recordings of Takashi Shirogane doing this time and time again, and if _he_ could do it on the first try, Lance could too.

Except, the ship wasn’t moving in the way he wanted it to. They were too close to the ice. Panic welled up within him. “Come around, come around! Come on, come on!” There was a bang, and the entire ship shuddered as the screen blacked out for a moment before the visual returned.

Everything started beeping around them as they spiralled completely out of control. Somewhere behind him, Lance heard Hunk yelling about losing a wing, but all he could do was let his hands fall down in defeat. “Aw, fuck.”

He watched the surface come closer and closer until the ship slammed into it, the whole simulation jerking as it emulated the feeling and sound of a crash.

The screen lit up in bold, red words, the monotone voice loudly announcing, “Simulation failed.” Like Lance hadn’t realized it already, slumping back in his chair dejectedly, the smell of vomit filling the dark simulator.

“Nice work, Tailor,” Pidge muttered bitterly, causing him to wince.

The door at the back of the simulator slid open, the sudden brightness causing all of them to wince.

“Roll out, donkeys!” Iverson’s deep voice boomed.

Lance sighed, unbuckling his belt and standing. He knew what was coming next. This wasn’t the first time that this had happened. Every single time, he said it would be the last, but it never was.

They exited the simulator, standing perfectly straight in a line as Iverson paced in front of them, gathering his thoughts. God, he was an intimidating man.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw movement and quickly glanced over. He grimaced when he met a pair of unimpressed, dark green eyes. Yet another reason he had wanted to succeed.

Iverson stopped pacing and faced them, and Lance turned his attention entirely to him. He was not getting called out for not listening. “Well let's see if we can't use this complete failure as a lesson for the rest of you students!” Oh god, Lance could feel the eyes of all the other people watching him, his classmates, other officers, everything.

This wasn’t just any test; this was a big test. This was the kind of test that could make or break their mark for the semester. It could stop them from going on an actual fighter. Lance felt like he was going to be sick.

“Can anyone point out the mistakes these three so-called cadets made in the simulator?" Iverson barked.

"The engineer puked in the main gearbox!" Miguel spoke up, raising his hand. To think, Lance had liked him, and now he was calling out Hunk.

"Yes.” Iverson turned to Hunk, who stared at him with wide, horrified eyes that looked like they were about to water, “as everyone knows, vomit is not an approved lubricant for engine systems.” Hunk looked down with a frown as Iverson looked at the rest of the class. “What else?"

"The Comm Spec removed his safety harness." Pidge rubbed his head slightly beside him.

"The pilot crashed!"

Lance grimaced at that one. God, did Emily have to wave her hand around like that?

"Correct,” Iverson answered, hands on his hips and he nodded at the other students. Lance couldn’t help but lower his eyes to the ground. He honestly thought that he had this. “And worst of all, the whole jump, they're arguing with each other!” He swung around to stare at them directly again. “Heck, if you're going to be this bad individually, you'd better at least be able to work as a team! The Galaxy Garrison exists to turn young cadets like you into the next generation of elite astro explorers, but these kinds of mental mistakes are exactly what cost the lives of the men on the Kerberos Mission."

The _second_ that Lance heard the words ‘Kerberos Mission’ he knew exactly what was coming. He was initially surprised, and relieved, that this entire simulation hadn’t set Pidge off, but it looked like his relief had come far too soon.

"That's not true, sir!" Pidge burst out, his entire body tensing beside Lance as he glared fiercely at Iverson.

"What did you say?!"

Pidge opened his mouth to say something else, but Lance lunged forward, slamming his hands over his mouth to muffle the noise. "Sorry, sir!” Lance said quickly. “I…I think he may have hit his head when he fell out of his chair!” Oh god, and he hadn’t even asked if he was okay, had he? “But point taken." He smiled broadly hoping that would be enough. Drama was his elective, surely he could keep a smile on his face.

Instead, Iverson marched closer, and Lance straightened up. "I hope I don't need to remind you that the only reason you’re here is that the best pilot in your class had a discipline issue and flunked out! Don't follow in his footsteps. Do you understand me, McClain?”

Lance could feel the sweat dripping from his hairline, and his eyes watering a bit. He didn’t need to be reminded about that. He knew exactly why he was here. Still, he nodded his head.

Lost in his thoughts, Lance had to do a bit of a double take when _she_ walked by. Short black hair that flipped out around her neck, pale skin, dark green eyes framed with thick lashes. Jenny cast a look at him as she walked by, nose wrinkling a bit before she rolled her eyes.

That hurt. That hurt a lot. He’d always liked Jenny a lot, and thought that maybe they could have something.

“I need someone serious in my life, not just a goofball,” she had told him very firmly a few weeks ago, and fuck that hurt more than most other things people had said to him.

After switching from their gear back into their uniforms, they had to stay to watch the others go through it. Everyone else who did the simulators and passed were free to go, but not them. Lance felt numb the entire time as they watched the rest of the class go through the simulators with ease. Well, no, everyone made mistakes, but nothing like their disaster.

When they were finally dismissed, he tried to get away quickly and silently, but he wasn’t fast enough. He flinched as a familiar voice called out to him.

Hunk and Pidge didn’t stop when he did, continuing back to their dorms, leaving him to face his doom.

Lance bit his lip before he stared up into the pale blue eyes of his older sister. He had a lot of siblings, and though Rachel was the closest to him in age (she was only a year older), it was still Veronica that he got along with best. Probably because both of them had dreams away from their little community in Cuba.

Veronica was the one that first brought up the man who would become his hero, Takashi Shirogane. They were the same age and had graduated together, and he was a legend. A flying prodigy that set every record, and had gone into space more times than anyone else his age had. He was everything that Lance wanted to be, and Veronica’s stories of him only made him want to be a fighter pilot even more.

Now here he was, failing again and again. Crossing his arms in front of him, he looked over her shoulder. “What do you want?”

Veronica frowned at him. “What happened in there, Lance?”

He glared a bit. “You were watching, right? Hunk kept puking and Pidge was climbing all over the place.”

Her frown turned into a look of surprise, and she scowled. “And what were _you_ doing?”

“I was flying and giving orders like I was supposed to!” He threw his hands up into the air. “If they would have listened to me—“

“You were showing off and didn’t even _consider_ what they said,” she snapped, stopping him in his tracks. “You’re just as much to blame, maybe even more so as the team leader. It’s not fair, but it’s the way things work on actual missions.” Her expression softened. “You’re a good kid, Lance. I don’t get why this keeps happening.”

Lance bit his lip. Because he wasn’t her? Because he wasn’t the Garrison’s Golden Boy like Takashi Shirogane had been? Because he wasn’t the naturally gifted pilot without care like Keith had been? Because he was just a goofball and didn’t belong here?

Instead of saying anything, Lance shrugged. “I’m tired. Heading to bed.” He brushed by his sister, not looking back as she called out his name again.

He felt a little bad about that, but he’d just apologize when he saw her in the morning.

…

Hunk wasn’t a fan of the Garrison uniforms. He preferred his own comfortable clothes with his gloves and his utility belts holding all kinds of important things. They always made him feel more secure than the simple, but comparatively impractical, gear.

He flopped down onto his bed, facing the wall as shame washed through him. He came to the Garrison to be an engineer; it was what he wanted. There was no money in baking or talking to people to make them feel better, and he wanted to be able to provide for his family.

That meant being on ships and planes and so much more. It meant that his stomach might get worked up, and okay, he was nervous already and that didn’t help it, and he probably shouldn’t have eaten the exact things that he did knowing he was going into a simulator, but still!

And maybe he should have taken some Gravol. That usually helped keep his stomach calm on flights and in simulators. What a day to run out.

Hunk fiddled with his gloves a bit, trying to calm his thoughts. He just felt so lousy, going over everything that he had done wrong. Then again, it wasn’t like Lance had helped him out anyway. He _knew_ how he got if people yelled at him when he was already under pressure and nervous.

His phone buzzed in his hand, causing him to wince, looking down to see the word ‘Tinā’ written on it. It wasn’t that he didn’t _want_ to talk to his mother, it was just that he told her about the simulator test that day. His mother always believed in him, and he didn’t want to tell her that they had failed _so_ miserably.

He also didn’t like lying to her, and he knew that she would know something was wrong, and then she’d ask about it, and then it would all come tumbling out, and then she would be disappointed!

The door opened, breaking Hunk out of his spiralling thoughts. He looked over his shoulder as Lance burst into the room, a frown on his face as he started pulling off his uniform without an ounce of modesty. Hunk was used to this though. They’d been roommates since their first year at the Garrison, it was how they met one another. Sharing a room with someone for going on four years kind of made you immune to things like that.

Hunk’s attention turned back to the phone in his hand. He had missed her call, so he didn’t have to talk to her about the failed test yet, so he didn’t have to lie. He still felt guilty for not answering her.

“Let’s go out.”

Hunk’s eyes rose from his phone, staring at his roommate with pure confusion. “What?”

“Go out.” Lance grinned at him brightly, never phased from a loss. Hunk wished that he could be that carefree and go with the flow after a defeat. He always got a bit anxious.

“It’s almost lights out,” Hunk pointed out, but he still found himself rising up from his bed, because when _didn’t_ he go along with Lance’s stupid plans? He found himself in detention more times than he cared to admit just because he followed his friend into trouble. But If he didn’t go with him, Lance would probably just pout at him, or go anyway and get into more trouble.

As if reading his mind, Iverson’s voice boomed out from the hall, "Lights out in five! Everyone back to their dorms, now."

“Lance…” Hunk whispered nervously, but his friend simply grinned and looked out the door. There were still a couple people outside both in their uniforms and casual clothing.

Lance slipped out of the room, and Hunk groaned. He glanced at his phone, deciding to leave it there for now. He’d apologize to his mother for not answering her call in the morning.

They left their room, hiding in the shadows, behind garbage cans and under chairs. The last time they had done this, Lance had actually tried to hide in a garbage can but got caught when it tipped over as he tried to climb out.

"You heard Commander Iverson. We need to bond as a team. We're going to grab Pidge, hit the town, loosen up, meet some nice girls, maybe—"

“I get it, I get it,” Hunk groaned. “Man, I wish that you were still going on about Jenny Shaybon or that other Jenny.” The other girl that Lance had talked about before wasn’t _named_ Jenny, but apparently resembled Jenny a lot, so Hunk worked with what he could get. Unfairly pretty with dark hair that Lance wanted to touch, though he sounded awfully mad about those details for some reason. “And for the record, this is a bad idea.”

The lights turned off in the hall, but that wouldn’t really matter. This was the Galaxy Garrison. Everything had night vision with it.

Lance ducked down underneath the large windows to one of the staff lounges, crawling underneath. As always, Hunk followed him. "You know, for someone in a space exploration program, you don't have much of a sense of adventure."

“All of your little adventures end up with me in the Principal’s office,” Hunk pointed out, completely unimpressed.

Lance looked like he was about to argue as he looked around the corner, but froze. His eyes went wide and he was suddenly pushing Hunk back behind the recycling bins that were there. They waited with bated breath, one of the guards passing by them.

The patrols were consistent, but seeing one meant that they likely wouldn’t run into anyone else in that area for a while, which was a good thing in their case.

They went down another hall, heading towards where Pidge’s dorm room was. They both froze, hiding in the shadows as his door opened.

Pidge looked back and forth, not seeing them, before hurrying down the hall.

Lance’s eyebrows rose. “Where is _he_ going?”

“Lance, no,” Hunk muttered, because he was starting to get worried.

“Lance, yes,” he replied, darting down the hallway. “Let’s go.”

Hunk thought about arguing with Lance, but sighed, knowing that he couldn’t let his friend go alone, and there was no way in hell that he would actually listen to him. So instead of protesting, he followed him.

They were going to get into _so_ much trouble.

…

Pidge looked down at her computer, double checking the email that was opened on it. It was harmless enough, looking like a teenage boy was simply ranting to his father about the day. That was exactly what she wanted people to think that she was writing.

In reality, it was a heavily coded email from a teenage girl to her mother, reporting in that she hadn’t found anything useful yet for their investigation. Honestly, it made it sound like she was on a really awesome spy mission, but in reality it was slowly going through files and listening to things while going to the same school that she intended on going to originally.

How she got her mother to agree to this, Pidge would never quite understand, but the daily emails, whether she had anything to say or not, were mandatory. Hopefully she’d actually have something to send her tomorrow.

She heard one of the commanders yelling that it was lights out in the hall, her cue to get everything that she needed into her bag. Pidge grunted as she hoisted it onto her back, since she had quite a few things packed in there, and it wasn’t the lightest equipment since she couldn’t exactly go and buy the most up-to-date things without someone getting suspicious.

Pidge waited until she was sure that the patrol had gone by, and slipped out of her room, thankful that she had gotten a dorm to herself. Well, thankful that she had been able to hack the system to give herself a single at least.

Getting to her destination was pretty easy. She had mapped out the route early on, and had traversed it many times by this point. It was strange how it brought her out into the open by all the solar panels, and yet no one ever caught her.

That was why she didn’t think anything of it as she set up her equipment and got to work. It wasn’t easy setting up her entire system, and that system wasn’t exactly the prettiest to look at, but she was exceedingly proud of it.

Once everything was set up, Pidge crossed her legs and put her headphones on. She fiddled with the radios she had going, the faint electronic noises overlaying soft voices that she couldn’t quite make out, filling her ears.

Closing her eyes to listen, Pidge was completely unaware that someone had snuck up behind her. Her entire body tensed and froze as she felt someone grab her headphones and whisper, “You come up here to rock out?”

Pidge flailed backwards with a yell, looking around at Lance with wide eyes. Where had _he_ come from? And why was Hunk crawling on the ground behind him? What the hell?

She dropped her headphones, staring at him with wide eyes. “Lance, Hunk. No, um, just looking at stars.” She motioned wildly to the sky. Well, technically she was _listening_ to the stars but that wasn’t the point. She tried her best, most innocent look that she could manage. The one that always worked on her father.

Lance seemed unimpressed, eyes narrowing. “Where'd you get this stuff? It doesn't look like Garrison tech."

Okay, he was suspicious, but Pidge couldn’t help but be a little smug. “I built it.”

Hunk crawled behind her to get a closer look at the equipment. "You built all this?"

She shot around as his hand reached out to touch it, smacking him away, causing him to slink back and rub the abused limb. “Stop it.” She glanced back at Lance. “With this thing, I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system.” Okay, she was more than a little smug, so shoot her.

Lance cupped his chin with his hand, eyebrows raising so high they almost disappeared into his (in her opinion) hilariously short bangs. “That right? All the way to Kerberos?"

Shock rushed through her and she cringed, looking away. Had she been so obvious that Lance had picked up on that?

He rolled his eyes at her. "You go ballistic every time the instructors bring it up. I thought for sure you were going to lose your shit when that was the assignment for the test. What's your deal?"

Hunk was touching her homemade satellite, prompting her to glare at him. “Second warning, Hunk.” She could appreciate that he was fascinated by her setup, but did he have to touch _everything_?

Lance ignored their exchange and kept going. "Look, Pidge, if we're going to bond as a team, we can't have any secrets."

Ire rushed through her. Really? He was going to act all high and mighty like he was the boss of her.? She stared at her computer for a moment, contemplating telling him exactly what she had found. It’s not like if he or Hunk went raving to anyone else that they’d believe them.

Pidge sighed and looked back over her shoulder at him. "Fine. The world as you know it is about to change. The Kerberos Mission wasn't lost because of some malfunction or crew mistake—" She cut herself off as she saw moment out of the corner of her eye. Really? “Stop touching my equipment!”

Hunk groaned and fell over, like a puppy that had been scolded.

“As I was _saying_ ,” she cast a stern glance at him, “I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter."

Hunk instantly shot up, his eyes wide with frightened alarm. “Aliens? Seriously?”

Lance, on the other hand, crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "OK, so you're insane. Got it."

How the hell does one join the Galaxy Garrison and not believe in aliens? Anger rushed through her as he straightened himself up, and she sent him her sternest glare. "I'm serious! They keep repeating one word: "Voltron".” She grabbed her notepad to point out the word where, okay, maybe she had been doodling a lot, but sometimes she needed to do things with her hands while listening to stuff. “And tonight, it's going crazier than I have ever heard it."

Still with an air of skepticism, Lance asked, “How crazy?”

Almost like his words had prompted them, an alarm went off, causing all three of them to jump. An instant wave of panic hit Pidge, because they knew that sound. That sound meant that something bad was about to happen.

"Attention, students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: All students are to remain in their barracks until further notice." That was Sanda’s calm, stern voice echoing through the air.

Hunk finally stood up straight, looking around them as if searching for an answer as to what was going on. “Uh…guys…is that a meteor?”

Pidge and Lance both looked up to where he was pointing, but it was kind of hard to miss the vibrant orange orb that was rushing down towards them in the dark twilight sky.

Most people’s first instinct would be to run since it looked like it was coming _really_ close to them, and anything sizable hitting the ground could be a very bad thing. Not her though. Pidge grabbed her night vision binoculars to look up at it.

What she saw made her gasp. “It’s a ship!” It really was!

A yelp escaped her throat as Lance grabbed the binoculars from her to look through them himself. “Holy crow! That’s…not one of ours.”

“No,” Pidge replied to him as if speaking to a small child, had he not been listening to anything that she said earlier? “It’s one of _theirs._ ” This was it, this was what she was looking for. Concrete proof that there actually was something else out there. Proof that there was no pilot error, that maybe her dad and Matt…

“There are really aliens out there,” Hunk said as they all grimaced at the bright light as the ship streaked by.

It actually didn’t come anywhere close to them, slamming into the ground in the desert, hidden beyond the cliff outcroppings.

This was it, this was her chance and she couldn’t pass it up.

The two boys stared at her as she started taking apart her equipment and shoving it into her large bag. Pidge could hear cars leaving the facility, but she didn’t care. She needed to get there to see.

Tugging her bag onto her back, she looked up at Lance with wide eyes. “We’ve got to go see that ship!” That said, she took off towards the door, eager to get out there.

“Hunk, come on!” Lance yelled to him as he followed her, excitement tinting his voice. She couldn’t blame him. It was a _real_ alien ship!

Maybe she could finally get the answers she was looking for.

…

Maybe this was poorly thought out. They couldn’t sneak into the transport bay, so there was absolutely no way to get to any of the cars or hover bikes to get to the crash site. That left them with a single option that had Hunk groaning, but he was a trooper and came with them anyway. They walked.

It wasn’t like the alien ship had crashed _that_ far away from them anyway.

Alien ship. Lance was kind of losing his mind. Of course he had always believed in aliens (despite his skepticism towards Pidge), but he never thought he’d see one of their ships land on Earth or anything. Land, crash, same thing.

Adrenaline was what kept him going, and soon they found themselves up on an outcropping, far enough away to not be noticed.

The Garrison had many faults, but never let it be said that they weren’t efficient. They already had a quarantine dome up and ready.

Pidge pulled out some of his equipment (he was strong for a little guy), putting on his headphones again, typing away. Not one to just sit around, Lance snatched the binoculars to get a closer look, zooming in as far as he could.

On one hand, the ship had similarities to ships on Earth, but at the same time, it looked completely different. “Woah, what the heck is that?” He turned his attention to the quarantine dome, instantly catching sight of a shapely figure that he couldn’t help but notice. What? He appreciated beauty. “And who the heck is she?”

“Lance!” Pidge smacked his shoulder.

“Ow!” He zoomed out again to look at everything as a whole. How did his little hands hurt so much? Hunk knelt down next to him, and he took comfort in that because holy hell he was staring at an alien ship! There was one glaring problem. “Man, we'll never get past all those guards to get a look.” He pulled the binoculars away, frowning as he assessed the situation with his own eyes. He happened to have great eyesight, and was able to pick up on a lot of visual things others missed. It was why he was at the top of the firearms class.

"Aw, man. Yeah, we—yeah I guess there's nothing to do but head back to the barracks, right?" Hunk stood up to leave, and Lance couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at him. He wasn’t being subtle at all.

“Wait!” Pidge exclaimed suddenly. “They set up a camera in there and I grabbed its feed. Look!"

They both turned their attention towards his monitor, and Lance was absolutely blown away at what he saw.

Pidge’s connection wasn’t perfect, but it was still clear enough to see a man strapped down to a table, surrounded by two Garrison officers in quarantine suits.

“Hey! What are you doing?” The man demanded. Lance knew him. But that was impossible, wasn’t it?

“Calm down, Shiro.” Apparently Iverson was in there, because Lance knew that voice anywhere. “We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests on you." That was…actually a pretty standard thing to do, wasn’t it?

Shiro didn’t seem to see it that way. "You have to listen to me! They destroyed worlds! Aliens are coming!" He struggled against his bindings.

“That’s Takashi Shirogane!” Lance said, pointing at the screen. “The pilot of the Kerberos Mission. That guy's my hero!" Yes, because _that_ was the point to take away from this. Not that Shiro had just crashed to Earth in an alien ship after been pronounced dead a year ago.

"Guess he's not dead in space after all,” Hunk noted, not taking his eyes off the screen.

Pidge had his eyes narrowed seriously, scanning the video feed closely. “Where’s the rest of the crew?”

"Do you know how long you've been gone?" Iverson asked on the screen, sounding much calmer than Lance ever heard him.

"I don't know. Months? Years? Look, there's no time. Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They're probably on their way. They'll destroy us! We have to find Voltron!" Shiro said, clearly more than agitated and distressed.

Lance felt a shiver go up his spine at the last word Shiro said, and Pidge gasped. “Voltron.”

"Sir,” the other person in the makeshift room said, “take a look at this. It appears his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic."

Lance didn’t even have time to process that as Iverson said, "Put him under until we know what that thing can do."

"Don't, don't put me under! No! No, there's no time! Let me go!" Shiro sounded angry, terrified, and was clearly panicking as he struggled. What the hell were they _doing_?

"They didn't ask about the rest of the crew,” Pidge pointed out.

That wasn’t what Lance was focused on though. “What are they _doing_ to him? That guy’s a legend. And, you know, human rights and stuff. They’re not even gonna listen to him?"

Pidge looked at him, meeting his gaze seriously, “We have to get him out.”

Lance’s mind instantly tried to start whirring through a plan, but Hunk spoke up first, “I hate to be the voice of reason, _always_ , but we’re watching from here because we can’t get by the guards.”

That was a fair point, but Lance was not at all deterred. He had wanted a team building adventure, and they certainly got one! He could feel the excitement coursing through him. "That was before we were properly motivated.” They could think of something. “Could we tunnel in?”

Pidge shook his head. "Maybe we could get some hazmat suits and sneak in like med techs."

“Or,” Hunk spoke up, sounding a little more hysterical, “we dress up like cooks, sneak into the commissary to get a late night snack.”

“We’d never get back in now anyway,” Lance pointed out, more focused on the area around him. Come on, he could do this. He could think of something. They’d go in there, rescue Shiro, and find out what he was talking about. Everyone would learn of how they helped the hero, how they had helped discover alien life was real. His parents would be so impressed that it wouldn’t matter if he failed his test earlier, and it’d show everyone that he wasn’t just all talk. Hell, maybe he’d even find a gorgeous partner to impress with his heroism along the way! “What we need is a distraction.”

Loud bangs abruptly rang through the air as fiery explosions lit up the area a little ways away from the crash site. All of them screamed, and Lance swung around to stare at it. What the hell?

Hunk instantly started panicking. “Is it the aliens? Are they here? Oh god, they got here so quick! It’s them, right?”

Pidge had been scanning the area around the crash site, and said, “No. Those explosions were a distraction, for them!"

Lance followed to where she was pointing, seeing a hoverbike set down behind a series of large boulders, most of the Garrison cruisers and hoverbikes heading towards the explosions.

He raised the binoculars back to his eyes, zooming in as much as possible. With the limited colour, he figured that the person had black or dark brown hair, but most of them was covered up. Lance could see the way his hair hung around the front of his face, and that jacket—

A spark shot up Lance’s spine and he straightened up, mouth falling open in disbelief. “No way.” He watched the boy run quickly, and that was when Lance _knew_ that he was right. Something heavy was weighing in his chest, and he instantly chalked it up to ire.

Bristling slightly, he said, “Oh, he is not going to be us in there! That guy is always trying to one-up me!" He couldn’t help himself from leaping to his feet and rushing down the semi-steep slope of the cliff.

“Who is it?” Hunk called from behind him.

“Keith!” Just saying the name out loud made something warm rush through him–frustration most likely.

“Are you sure?” Hunk called out, and Lance could hear him running after him.

“I’d recognize that mullet anywhere!” Despite the fact that said mullet was hidden away, and it was actually the way his hair framed his face that gave him away. Lance had always noticed that, because who gave him the right to have nice hair when he probably washed it once a year, while Lance worked on his beauty routine every day?

He thought he heard Pidge ask who Keith was, but he ignored him, slipping down the slopes and running.

He was _not_ going to let Keith beat him to something else again.

…

For whatever reason, Keith felt antsy from the moment he woke up. He wished that he could say that he got up at the crack of dawn, but in reality, his sleep schedule was completely bonkers and all over the place. Whatever, Keith liked nighttime better anyway.

He felt on edge the entire day, and he found himself looking up at the sky a lot. It wasn’t the first time he felt this way, like something was reaching out to him in a sense. It was hard to explain, so he never bothered.

_“Why do you insist on staying out here all alone?” Adam’s warm brown eyes stared at him with worry. “You can come back with me. He wouldn’t want you to be out here alone.”_

_“No I can’t.” Keith shook his head. “Not allowed on the grounds anymore. And I need to be here.”_

_“You say that every time I come to check on you, but you never explain why.”_

How could he explain that something was drawing him out to the desert? Like the very atoms in the air were trying to whisper to him.

There wasn’t very much that Keith could trust in life, but one thing was his instincts, and they were screaming at him that something was coming, that something was going to happen. As the day wore on, the feeling got stronger and stronger.

It was the same feeling that prompted him to check over his hoverbike, to make sure that everything was okay and that the solar panels on it had collected enough power.

Then again, the past few weeks had been weird. He kept having nightmares and found himself spending more and more time in the caverns in the desert, like something was telling him that something bad was coming and he needed to be ready for it.

Making explosives seemed like a bit of an extreme, but he still did it. Maybe Adam was right, maybe he had spent too much time alone in the desert. The one time that the man _tried_ to drag him back though, he just ran and hadn’t spoken to him for a month.

Adam stopped trying after that, simply choosing to bring him groceries every few weeks. Keith was thankful for that, because it meant he didn’t just have to live off sometimes cold cans of food.

Keith loaded up his hoverbike with the explosives as the sun began to set, and just started to _drive_. He knew that he was getting a little too close to the Garrison for comfort, but the house that his Pops had built was positioned purposely to aid in training accidents and fire control for tests and such.

He grimaced at the thought of his father. Being out here was also why the house going up in flames had ended in tragedy.

Choosing not to focus on that, Keith just kept driving until he saw it. The meteor streaking through the sky and slamming into the ground.

He did a bit of recon from far away, watching as they pulled someone from the wreck (that ship didn’t look like anything they had on Earth), taking them into the quarantine dome they constructed.

He zoomed in a little more with the binoculars that he had swiped from the Garrison months ago. His breath hitched in his throat, because though he was still different Keith _knew_ who that was.

He eyes watered a bit, but Keith got himself under control as he started to _move_. He pulled his bandana up over the bottom of his face, and set to work, lining up the explosives far away so that no one would be hurt, but would be enough devastation to make most of the people milling about the crash site leave to check it out.

It was amazing just how predictable the Garrison was.

Keith breathed heavily as he managed to sneak inside fairly easily, the door sliding open in front of him. He could feel his eyes burning and prickling at the sight of the man strapped down on the table, surrounded by three others in hazmat suits.

Rage rushed through Keith as the men ran at him, stupidly coming one at a time. Everyone always underestimated him, because he didn’t look any kind of strong, but he was fast and knew how to fight. You didn’t grow up in the environments he did without learning how.

He ducked under the outreached arms of one man, hitting him hard enough to actually throw him to the other side of the room, and spinning around in time to kick the other down before going for the last one.

_“If you have to get in a fight, there’s no way around it, just remember to fight smarter, not harder,” his Pops said to him._

Once all three of the Garrison officers were on the floor, Keith ran to the side of the table, his eyes going wide as he reached out with shaking hands to tilt the man’s face towards him. The white floof of hair was unfamiliar, as was the gaping scar across the bridge of his nose, but Keith knew him. He was sure of it. “Shiro?”

He reached behind him to grab his knife, slicing through the bindings with ease. Keith had no idea what it was made of, but there was very little it couldn’t cut through.

Shiro groaned as Keith put his arm over his shoulder and started to yank him up. Jesus, he was heavy. Had he gotten even _more_ muscular? What the hell?

“Nope!”

Keith jumped, looking up with wide eyes as three vaguely familiar people came into the room, one marching towards him. He stared at him as the boy said, “No you—no, no, no, no, no, no, no you don't. I'm saving Shiro!”

He just kept staring at the other boy came over, pulling Shiro’s other arm over his shoulder. It took some of the weight off of him, and honestly, Keith should just take it and move because Shiro was way too heavy for him to carry, but he was _so_ confused.

It didn’t help that this boy, aesthetically speaking, was very attractive. Keith didn’t fall for people easily, Shiro once helped him figure out that it meant that he was demisexual, which was quite the revelation at the time, but he was also so very weak to pretty boys.

“Who are you?” Keith demanded. Well, that wasn’t the thanks he meant to say. The fact suddenly clicked through. He knew him. He was that Taylor guy or whatever that always hung around the nice big guy, who was one of the two people standing at the door. What were they _doing_ there?

“Who am I?” the boy squawked out. “The name's Lance."

Oh, so he wasn’t Taylor. Or was he? Keith didn’t know, he didn’t pay attention to many people when he was in the Garrison. Lance stared at him as if waiting for an answer, but he had nothing. 

“We were in the same class at the Garrison?" Lance prompted.

Yeah, he got that much. Why else would he be out this far? Actually, Keith had no clue why he was there at all. He had to admit though, a small part of him was curious. “Are you an engineer?"

"No, I'm a pilot.” He looked so offended by that. “We were, like, rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck-and-neck."

Keith raised an eyebrow at that. He definitely didn’t remember that, because the only ‘rival’ he had (and that was a stupid term for it anyway) was that little bitch James Griffin. Now that he thought about it though, he _did_ remember someone else always asking him how he did on tests and everything. Yup, definitely the person he thought was named Taylor. Oops.

“I remember you. You're a cargo pilot.”

“Well, not anymore,” Lance snapped, scowling at him. “I'm fighter class now thanks to you washing out."

Bristling a bit at that, Keith couldn’t help but respond sarcastically, “Well, congratulations. Come on.” Why did all the attractive ones with pretty eyes always have to be jerks?

They got outside, and Keith couldn’t help but grimace a bit at the raging fires in the distance. He knew he caused them, but that didn’t mean he had to like it any.

The other two people that were with Lance stood guard, watching as they maneuvered over to Keith’s hoverbike. That actually was pretty helpful now that he thought about it. It made Keith wonder who these three were. Why were they even here? They clearly weren’t there with Garrison permission.

God, they were going to get into so much trouble.

The tall guy groaned from where he and the little familiar one were watching, and lowered the binoculars away from his eyes. "Oh, man, they're coming back and they do not look happy. We gotta go.”

Keith glanced over at them as they rushed to where his hoverbike was. He knew what was coming, because logically, he couldn’t hold up Shiro and fly at the same time, so someone else would have to, and he got the feeling no one was going to let anyone else get left behind.

“Uh, do you mind if we catch a ride with you?" the big guy asked as Keith let go of Shiro and hopped up onto the bike, giving Lance the chance to lift him up. The big guy got on the back, and the whole thing jerked backwards.

"Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?” the little one with glasses asked.

“No,” Keith said honestly. “Get on.” He couldn’t leave these people here. They came to save Shiro too, and damn if he didn’t know how the Garrison could treat people that didn’t do what they wanted.

Keith’s attention turned to the cars that were heading towards them, close enough for the headlights to illuminate them. He grimaced and turned the bike on, quickly maneuvering it to zoom away. They couldn’t go as fast as he would have liked, but that just meant adapting.

He stayed focused on the area in front of him, hoping that the three behind him could take care of Shiro while he got them out of there.

"Why am I holding this guy?" he heard the little one yell from behind him.

"Hey, we did all fit!" The big guy sounded pretty optimistic about it.

Keith’s eyes darted around the rock outcroppings as he tried to figure out exactly where they were, not focusing on the cars chasing them.

“Can this thing go any faster?” Lance asked, sounding closer than the other two.

"We could toss out some non-essential weight,” Keith suggested.

“Oh! Right!” There was a pause, and god, a part of him wanted to turn around but he knew he had to keep his eyes forward. “OK, so that was an insult. I get it."

Then Keith saw some very familiar outcroppings and realized _exactly_ where they were. An idea came to mind, and normally he could do it without a problem, but he did have four other people with him and—oh.

Oh, that could work.

He leaned up, glancing back at the others. “Big man, lean left!” He’d find out his name later when they weren’t being chased by the Garrison.

Adam got him out of being arrested once, he didn’t think that he’d be able to do it this time too and he really didn’t want to end up in a Garrison cell again.

There were a few startled screams as the tilting caused them to suddenly change direction, the sound of crashing somewhere behind them. He wasn’t worried about the people that were in it, those were incredibly sturdy cars (technically land rovers) and as long as they were buckled up, they’d be okay.

“Mr. Harris just wiped out Professor Montgomery!” the big guy called out. There was a pause, and then, “No, no. He’s fine.”

Keith pressed forward, taking them up a near ninety-degree hill, not really bothering with the chatter behind him. He grit his teeth together, quickly figuring out how to adjust for the added weight to pull this off. “Big man, lean right!”

The others screamed again as they were launched across the canyon, and he grimaced as they landed roughly but kept going. A little off and they would careen down into the ravines below.

They were _almost_ there. Almost.

“Guys?” the big guy spoke up nervously. “Is th—is that a _cliff_ up ahead?”

“No, no, no!” Lance cried out, and Keith couldn’t help but smirk as he leaned forward, putting as much power as he could into it.

_“It’s all about timing.”_

“Yup,” he replied.

_“Pull up too soon, you won’t have the momentum needed to create lift.”_

“No, no, no!” Lance kept screaming, the other two joining him as they careened off of the side of the cliff and started falling. "What are you doing?! You're going to kill us all!"

_“Too late, there won’t be enough lift to avoid the crash.”_

“Shut up and trust me!” Keith yelled back to him. He deserved that at least, since he could have left them behind.

_“You think I’m ready to try that?”_

Holding his breath, Keith waited, and waited, ignoring the screams behind him.

_“What do you think?”_

Then he quickly throttled the engine, pulling up, safely straightening them out. He felt someone, like Lance, grabbing onto his arm as they zoomed forward, and looked back over his shoulder at the cliff quickly. The Garrison’s car was perched on the ledge, watching them.

“Oh my god,” the big guy breathed out. “I can’t believe that just happened!”

“How’s Shiro?” Keith called out as he turned back around, knowing he’d have to take the scenic route back to his shack.

“Heavy,” the little one replied.

“Helpful, Pidge,” Lance said, and Keith took note of the name. Pidge, that was the little guy’s name. He could definitely remember that one. “You good back there, Hunk? Not about to puke thanks to this psycho’s driving?”

“You’re welcome to jump off,” Keith shot back at him. Hunk, that was the big guy’s name. He could remember _that_ one too.

Keith got the feeling that he was going to have to get used to being around them, because none of them seemed to realize just how much trouble that they were in.

…

The little shack that they had stopped at surprised Hunk a lot. What was something like _this_ doing in the middle of the desert? It was small and sad, with a single chair on the tiny porch, and a tree not far away

There were the remnants of fences around that made Hunk shiver slightly, because some of them had the distinct scorch marks of fire on them. Had there been something else here before, and how had Keith found this place?

Then again, he couldn’t understand what Keith was doing anywhere near the Garrison at all. He had been expelled almost a year ago, not long after the Kerberos mission was reported as a failure.

Everyone knew that Shiro and Keith were close. A lot of people whispered that it was why Keith’s marks always came out on top when he never seemed to be paying attention in class, always fiddling around and doing his own things.

Hunk got that, he always had. He got bored in class too, finishing work early. He’d always been too intimidated to actually approach him about it though.

He could still remember the last time he had seen Keith. The other boy had been walking down the hall, this blank, almost dazed look on his face. Hunk had _known_ there was something wrong, but he hadn’t approached him then either.

Keith brought the hoverbike to a stop, turning it off and letting it settle on the ground. He was the first to climb off, though Hunk was felt quick to follow, his legs shaking bit as they hit the ground. Thank god they were finally on solid land again.

He watched as Pidge lowered Shiro down, Keith and Lance grabbed a hold of him and heading towards the house silently. Pidge moved towards him, patting his arm. “You did good.”

“Huh?”

He laughed and shrugged. “You didn’t get sick once.”

Hunk blinked at that. He hadn’t, had he? Once it occurred to him what Keith was doing, using their added weight, _his_ added weight, to their advantage, he had held on tight and focused on the other boy, awaiting his instructions. Honestly, it was terribly smart. The smallest bit of pride hit him. “I didn’t even notice.”

They moved towards the shack, and Pidge frowned. “He has a cybernetic arm.”

“What?” Hunk looked over at him.

“I know we saw it in the video, but I actually got to see it up close. The metal felt weird. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before.” Pidge hugged himself. “I wonder what happened to the rest of the crew.”

“I dunno.” Hunk shook his head as they went inside. The first thing that he noticed was just how small the entire thing was.

They were in a very small kitchen and beside them was a run-down looking living room with a coffee table that really just seemed to be a wooden surface supported with books. The couch had a thin blanket thrown over it, and was propped up on cinder blocks. Outside of a little drawstring above them, implying that there was something up there, but Hunk doubted that it was anything special. In fact, unless he was going crazy, he was pretty sure this whole place was supposed to be a workshop with a couple appliances added.

Keith and Lance were lowering Shiro onto the couch, tucking the blanket over him.

“What now?” Hunk found himself asking, suddenly a little uncomfortable as he realized that _this_ was very likely where Keith had been staying this entire time.

“There’s a bathroom with running water, but you need to go outside to get in there. It was added in after the rest,” Keith spoke up from where he was kneeling beside Shiro, fingers pressed against his neck, no doubt checking his pulse. He stood up and moved to the chain in the room, tugging it down. “I don’t have anywhere else to sleep, but there are quite a few blankets and pillows in storage.” The ladder from above slid down, and he climbed back up.

The second that he was out of sight, Hunk scurried over to where Lance was and nudged him. “Dude, I think this is where Keith’s been living.”

Lance had his eyes focused on a wall that seemed to be covered in sheets, blinking up at him with surprise. He tilted his head in thought and hummed, scanning the area around them but not actually saying anything.

“Who is he?” Pidge spoke up curiously, finally setting his bag on the ground. That thing was heavy even for Hunk. “I mean, I get Lance has a _complicated_ past with him and all…”

“Complicated,” Lance spluttered.

Hunk slapped his hand over Lance’s mouth before he could go on another tirade because oh my god did he not realize that Keith could likely hear them? “You know the person Iverson always compares Lance to?” He nodded towards the ceiling.

“Really?” Pidge looked at Lance for a moment before shaking his head. “No way you could pull off that cliff maneuver.”

Blankets and pillows were suddenly tossed down from the ceiling, and a moment later, Keith came sliding back down the ladder before pushing it back up.

Lance pushed Hunk’s hand off of his face and stalked closer to him. “Ah, no thanks. We’ll just go back to our nice warm dorms, and not sleep in a sketchy shack in the middle of the desert.”

Keith narrowed his eyes at him. “Good luck with that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Oh no, Lance looked ready to fight him, throwing his hands up dramatically.

“You just broke into a Galaxy Garrison quarantine, helped steal the person they had strapped to a table, a person who just fell from _space_ in an _alien_ ship, and then went on a high speed chase that resulted in a lot of collision and car damage, and you think you can go back to your _dorm_?” Keith crossed his arms in front of him and raised an eyebrow.

Lance opened his mouth to protest, but for once in his life, closed it. From the way he crossed his arms and his eyebrows scrunched, he wasn’t too happy about that.

“Thanks Keith.” Hunk said, stepping towards him. “Uh, by the way, I’m Hunk, and this is Pidge. And uh…thanks for not leaving us there I guess?”

He didn’t know what he expected. A scowl or a roll of the eyes, or for Keith to growl that he should have left them there. It definitely wasn’t an awkward little shuffle as he picked up a blanket and headed towards the door. “Thanks for helping me save Shiro.”

“Where are you going?” Lance asked, a tone of accusation to his voice as he commandeered several pillows.

“Outside so I can keep watch.” Keith left, closing the door behind him softly, though whether it was so he wouldn’t wake Shiro, or because the door might fall off, Hunk didn’t quite know.

He was scared of Keith, but he kind of wanted to kidnap him and take him away from this place.

“What now?” Pidge asked as he grabbed a pillow and a blanket, settling down in a corner. His amber eyes kept darting to Shiro, as if tempted to wake him up. Instead, he took out his phone and shut it off.

“I guess we sleep and see what happens when Shiro wakes up,” Hunk replied with a shrug.

Pidge sighed and shook his head, lying down. “They’re going to realize it was us that helped with this. So if you have your phones, turn them off.”

Something twanged inside of Hunk, and he grimaced. He’d left his phone on his bed after ignoring a call from his Tinā. He laid down on the cold floor, tugging his own blanket up as he tucked his head into the pillow.

He really hoped that his mother could forgive him for this.

…

Keith didn’t sleep a wink that night. Between the adrenaline pumping through him that Shiro was back, Shiro was alive, and keeping watch for anyone from the Garrison, he felt like he was hopped up on 30 cups of coffee.

Instead, he stared up at the sky as it started to grow brighter, tugging his blanket up to his chin, one leg thrown over the arm of the chair. It probably looked uncomfortable to others, but he didn’t mind. He tended to be able to fall asleep in really, really weird spots and positions. Shiro likened him to a cat that way.

He pursed his lips as the thought of Shiro needing clothes outside of whatever it was he was wearing. It wasn’t like they could go into town or anything right now…

Keith’s eyes turned to the add-on to the shack that housed a storage room and bathroom. His chest constricted as he realized there _were_ clothes here that would likely fit his brother.

He got up, going down the stairs and into the room, going through the few boxes that were piled up there. His heart felt heavy as he looked at the black vest, reaching in and pulling it out. It had been such a long time since he had last seen it, but there was really nothing else Shiro could wear.

There was a scuffling sound by the door, and his head shot up, one hand twitching back to where his knife was. He relaxed just slightly when he saw it was just Lance, standing by the door and staring at him with surprised eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“Uh, bathroom?” Lance nodded to the other door, staring at Keith as if he was completely insane.

“Right, sorry.” Keith rummaged through the box, looking for the rest of the outfit, well aware that the other boy had yet to move.

“What’s that?” Lance asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Clothes for Shiro,” he answered curtly. Couldn’t Lance just do his business and go?

“Oh, good idea.” There was a pause. “Did you like…steal that or something?”

Keith’s head snapped up yet again and he glared at Lance. “What the fuck? No!”

“What?” Lance threw his hands up in front of him. “I don’t know what you’ve been up to for the past year.” He put on hand on his hip, pointing at him with the other, brows furrowed. “You’re the Garrison’s number one delinquent.”

He didn’t quite know how to respond to that, gathering up the rest of the clothes into his arms. He’d leave them on the coffee table for Shiro. For some reason though, Keith felt the impulse to actually correct Lance, because for whatever reason, he didn’t want anyone here to think he’d gone off the deep end or anything. “They belonged to my dad. This shack was his too.”

Keith braced himself for the questions. The ‘what happened to him’ or the ‘where is he’, but surprisingly, it never came. Lance was staring at him with a pinched expression, before simply muttering, “Oh. That makes sense.” He turned and headed towards the bathroom.

He decided not to think on that too much, slipping back out and up into his honestly pathetic little shack. His father had made it originally as a workspace, but later on fashioned it into almost like a mini house for Keith to play in. He had been a weird child at times that way.

The other two–Hunk and Pidge–were still asleep when Keith walked into the house. He only glanced at them for a moment before turning his attention back to Shiro, his gut twisting as his grey eyes glanced from the white hair, to the scar, to the entirely new arm.

“Who did this to you?” he muttered quietly, not wanting to wake him up. Instead, he left the clothes on the coffee table beside him and quickly left again with shaking hands.

He had known from the beginning that the Garrison was lying, that even if Shiro wasn’t completely okay, there was no way that pilot error caused the accident. Shiro could be reckless with himself, but he’d _never_ put another person in danger.

Keith’s hands twisted into shaking fists as he gritted his teeth, sitting back down in the chair on the porch and tugging the blanket up to his chin. He was going to find answers, even if it was the last thing he ever did.

…

The sky was on fire. It was a twist of golds, oranges, reds and pinks that melded into the blues of the night that were starting to fade away. In theory, it was just a normal sunrise that had a particularly reddish tint–what was they old rhyme again? Red sky in the morning being a good thing?

Shiro couldn’t quite remember. Then again, there was a lot that just wasn’t there in his head anymore. He knew who he was. He knew where he was. He remembered the events of the night before. He didn’t remember how he got into that alien ship. Didn’t remember a thing of the past apparent year.

What he did remember was that Zarkon was a monster, and that he was coming. There was no time to waste staring at an Earth sunrise.

Except, it was Earth. It was home. It wasn’t _purple_ . Not only that, but after a couple moments of confusion about the three kids sleeping on the floor, he _instantly_ realized where he was. He’d come to this little hovel before with Keith a few times.

He knew that the clothes left out were for him, and Shiro was more than eager to change out of the dirty disgusting prison garb he had been wearing for god knows how long. Slipping out of the house to the separate washroom, Shiro had immediately frozen on the porch, staring at Keith’s sleeping figure and just about dissolving into tears. Keith’s hair was longer, and he looked taller than the last time Shiro saw him, and he was still contorted like a weird cat as he slept.

Those were things that let Shiro know that he really, truly was home. No one could possibly get the strangeness of his younger brother so accurate.

Instead of waking him, Shiro had cleaned himself up and got dressed, but as he did, all he could focus on was the metal arm that was attached to his body. He couldn’t remember losing the flesh one, and that was probably for the best. Still, it bothered him. Not even the warmth of the rising sun and the feel of clothes that weren’t prison uniforms could make him smile.

He raised the prosthetic hand up, squeezing the fingers together. It was odd, because it moved exactly like a normal hand, but he couldn’t feel it. Even as he pressed his other hand against the shining surface, it just felt odd and wrong, a foreign body attached to his own.

Shiro was ripped out of his thoughts when he heard the crackle of sand behind him. His entire body tensed as he kept his eyes forward, and he had to remind himself that he was on Earth, and at the moment, there were none of _them_ around. No Galra. He knew that wouldn’t last for long though.

The footsteps were far too light though, and there was no clinking of dark armour. Despite that, his cybernetic hand curled into a fist, and he had to physically hold it down to stop from turning around and lashing out.

A hand rested on his shoulder, and he almost moved to throw it off when a familiar voice said, “It’s good to have you back.”

Shiro glanced over, smiling slightly as he regarded Keith, who was staring at him so earnestly and honestly. The younger of the two wasn’t smiling though, staring at him with a serious curve to his eyebrows.

Trying to clear the air a bit, Shiro said, “It’s good to be back.”

Keith squeezed his shoulder slightly, and hesitated for a moment. “What happened, Shiro? Where were you?”

"I wish I could tell you. My head's still pretty scrambled. I was on an... alien ship but... somehow I escaped. It's all a blur. How did you know to come save me when I crashed?” That wasn’t _entirely_ true. Shiro knew that there was something bad coming, that he had been surrounded by something horrible. Galra. How four Garrison kids managed to find him and break him out of quarantine was another perplexing thing.

“I don’t think you’d believe me,” Keith replied honestly.

“Try me.” If there was one thing Shiro knew, Keith could come up with some wild ideas, but half the time, he often found a way to back them up.

Keith nodded towards the shack, leading him back inside. Shiro took one last glance towards the sky before turning to follow him.

_Red sky at morning, sailor’s take warning._

The other three were still inside, now washed up and whispering to one another. They all looked up as he and Keith approached them, the younger walking by without acknowledging them, throwing the sheet off of the wall.

Shiro’s eyebrows rose as he regarded what could _only_ be called a conspiracy board. Knowing Keith, it made sense. He’d always been a much more visual and kinetic learner, he needed to see and touch things to understand, not have people talk to or lecture him. So piecing together research this way wasn’t uncommon (Shiro had seen mini versions of this for his essays in the past), but still, he could admit that this looked a tad crazy.

The lanky boy whistled, eyes darting from one thing to the next. Shiro was pretty sure that he recognized him. What was his name again? Taylor? No, that wasn’t right. Lance! “That is some impressive research for a drop out.”

The words made Shiro pause. “ _What_?”

Keith, who had been glaring at Lance, suddenly looked pale under his gaze. He shrugged his shoulders carelessly. “Didn’t work out.”

“Didn’t work out? You—“

“Shut up!” Keith all but snarled at the boy, who stepped farther away from him. Angry grey eyes turned to Shiro. “It doesn’t matter.”

Had he been here this entire time? _Alone_ ? One thing that had always kept Shiro feeling a bit better about his absence is that he knew that Adam would at _least_ keep an eye on Keith. Maybe they broke up, and it wasn’t like his ex and Keith were super, super close or anything, but letting him stay _here_ ? Shiro was going to have _words_ with him.

Keith turned almost pleading eyes to him, and Shiro decided to back off and not say anything in front of these other three kids. They’d talk about it later.

He turned his eyes back to Keith’s conspiracy board (because even if he understood it, that was absolutely what it was). "What have you been working on?" There were maps and different kinds of charts and what looked like typed up interviews, pictures, and so much more. It was really impressive.

“I can’t…quite explain it. Not really.” Keith kept his eyes on the board. “After…getting booted from the Garrison I was kind of…well…lost.” He shrugged, letting the sheet in his hands fall to the floor. “I wasn’t going to come here, but I felt drawn to it. This place. It's like something... some energy, was telling me to search."

Shiro turned his head from the board towards him. “For what?”

“I really didn’t know at the time. I just needed to look.” Keith looked towards the board again. “Eventually, I found a cave that, well, the energy was really, really strong there. It’s hard to explain. There was a drawing in the cave of a lion—“

“Lions aren’t native to North America,” the smallest one pointed out, drawing Shiro’s attention. He did a double take, because _holy shit_ this boy looked like Matt. It was _uncanny_. Last he checked, Matt didn’t have a younger brother. He had a—oh.

 _Oh_. What the hell?

“You’re right,” Keith quickly agreed. “I thought it was weird too, and it looked really old. Cave drawings aren’t really a thing around here. The local Te-Moak people actually have stories about it though. Really, really old ones from the sounds of it. A blue lion that came from the stars.”

“From the _stars_?” the lanky boy repeated skeptically.

Keith shot him a look, crossing his arms. “It made me think that something really was here in those caves. And that this energy might have something to do with it. And yesterday I just…felt like I had to be out and had to have my…stuff with me. Then I found you.” He looked away, squeezing himself a little more tightly. It was subtle, but Shiro caught onto it quickly.

He quickly diverted his attention to the other three in the room, drawing attention away from Keith. “And I guess I should thank all of you for getting me out too.” The largest boy looked incredibly concerned about, well, probably everything. Shiro recognized him, but he definitely wasn’t in the piloting courses, so he didn’t know his name. Instead, he approached the one that Keith had been glaring at. “Lance, right?” He held out his hand.

Lance reached out, but paused when he seemed to realize that it was the cybernetic arm. Shiro was almost ready to pull it back, because he couldn’t really blame him for being so concerned, and that’s when Lance completely surprised him.

Shiro remembered him now as that boy that would showboat around, trying to impress others. So he didn’t at all expect him to quickly adapt to the idea that there was an alien-made arm being held out to him, reaching forward and clasping the prosthetic hand like he would any other one. It actually meant a lot more than Shiro thought it would.

Lance backed off as Shiro turned to the other two. The tall boy all but squeaked, and it was almost funny, but he genuinely looked freaked out which, if Shiro had any proper sense of self-preservation, he might be too. Oh well.

Then the little Matt-clone stepped forward and said, “The nervous guy's Hunk Tui. I'm Pidge Gunderson. So, did anyone else from your crew make it out?"

Pidge, huh. That actually rang a bell. In the endless hours of flying in space to Kerberos, he distinctly remembered Matt telling him a story about how they lost his younger sister, Katie, once in the park, and later found her sitting surrounded by a bunch of pigeons, and calling her Pidge after that, though she seemed to hate it.

Also, he was pretty sure that Gunderson was the name of Matt’s favourite character from a game. This person, without a doubt, was Katie Holt. From the looks of it though, no one else knew that. He’d play along for now.

He focused on the question at hand and grimaced. It was hard to look at her, knowing what she was likely looking for. Even though he was the only one who could actually give it to her, he couldn’t. "I'm not sure,” he admitted. I remember the mission and being captured. After that, it's just…bits and pieces."

Katie–Pidge, frowned at that, and looked like she was about to say something else when the tall one raised his hand up into the air–a student looking for permission to ask a question. What a nice kid. Shiro had been stuck with all the ones with the egos, like Keith, and Lance, and Griffin.

"Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens.” He motioned with his hands wildly. “Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for all of us? Like where are they at this very moment?"

Shiro frowned at them. Galra. They were Galra. They were bad. And he knew that Zarkon was the worst even if his memories were a bit blurry as to _who_ Zarkon actually was.

“I can’t really put it all together,” he said. “I know they’re looking for some kind of weapon, and that it’ll be really, really bad if they get it. That’s why we need to find it first.” God, was he volunteering a bunch of kids to look for an alien ship? Apparently. It was either that or alien invasion at this point though, since everyone else would be more likely to arrest them on sight. “They keep calling the weapon Voltron.”

That word made Pidge, Hunk, and Lance all jolt, though Keith seemed completely in the dark about what was going on. With the wild way the three were looking at one another though, Shiro got the feeling that they at least heard the term before.

"Well,” Hunk spoke up again, “last night, I was rummaging through Pidge's stuff, and I found this picture.” Pidge squawked in rightful indignation as Hunk held up the picture. “Look it's his girlfriend."

Shiro almost laughed. How could Hunk mistake that for Pidge and a girlfriend when they so painfully looked alike?

Beside him, Keith narrowed his eyes, grey orbs glancing from Pidge to the picture and back as he quickly snatched it away, demanding, “What were you doing in my _stuff_?”

“I was looking for a candy bar,” Hunk said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “And you know, everyone else was asleep and your mind just wanders. So like, I started reading his diary—“ He pulled that out of one of the packs on his waist, prompting Pidge to scream and snatch it away. “And he’s been like…analyzing the signals, transmissions and stuff both from Earth and in space and it’s like there’s something scanning or something for something specific. You know?”

“Hunk, _what_?” Lance asked, clearly baffled by this if the incredulous look on his face said anything at all.

Continuing on, he said, “And I noticed that the repeating series of numbers the aliens are searching for looks a lot like a fraunhofer line."

Shiro raised an eyebrow at that, and Keith asked, “Frown…who?”

"It's a number describing the emission spectrum of an element, only this element doesn't exist on Earth. Trust me, I know my rocks,” Hunk said seriously.

“He’s not lying.” Lance waved his hand in the air. “He’d marry one if it was at all an option.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Hunk, who looked back at him completely unimpressed.

The taller of the two sighed and then turned his attention back to everyone else. “Anyway, I was thinking that since they’re searching for it, it might be this Voltron thing? And from the looks of the stuff Keith’s got here–which…how?” Keith stared back at him blankly. “Right. Probably don’t wanna know. But I can probably make a machine to look for it, kinda like a Voltron Geiger Counter."

Shiro had to stare at him at that. “That’s really impressive, Hunk.” He could figure out that numbers were referring to an emission of an element, and how to make a machine out of the alarming amount of crap Keith had around this place (seriously, they were going to have _words_ , he raised him better than this), to be able to detect said alien element? And on top of that, Pidge apparently was able to detect it at all in the first place?

What was the Garrison _teaching_ kids these days? He hadn’t even been gone for two years!

“Hunk, you big, gassy genius!" Lance cheered happily, clapping his hands on his shoulders which, what? 

Maybe Shiro was still a bit dazed from ending up in an alien ship after some terrible thing he couldn’t quite remember, crashing down to Earth, and getting drugged by the people he once trusted. That, or he was suddenly very out of touch with people only a few years younger than him. God, he needed another nap.

Keith looked back to his conspiracy board, brows furrowed in thoughtful contemplation. “What if it’s one and the same?”

“What are you talking about?” Lance demanded, a clear challenge to his voice.

Turning around, Shiro watched Keith’s fingers curl into fists, and was thankful that he didn’t actually do anything. Instead, he turned his attention entirely to Hunk and said, “The energy I’ve been feeling and that emission or whatever?”

“I _should_ be able to make that Geiger Counter pretty quickly.” He turned his attention back towards Pidge, who had been silently taking in everything the entire time. “If you help me out, we might be able to get it done in an hour or so? Then Keith can lead us to the cave and we can see if it matches.”

“Yeah, let’s do it!” Pidge agreed, apparently having forgiven him for going through her stuff already. She knelt down and started going through her comically big bag. “If we can find this thing first, maybe we can get the aliens to say what happened to the rest of the Kerberos Crew as well.” She glanced at Shiro quickly, as if hoping that he would have regained his memories since the last time she brought it up.

Shiro had really nothing to add to that though outside of saying, “I don’t remember much, but I know we can’t let them find Voltron.”

Hunk and Pidge set to work, gathering things from around Keith sad little place of residence without even bothering to ask. Not that he seemed particularly bothered by it.

“Anything to eat around here?” Lance spoke up suddenly, startling Shiro out of his thoughts. The other teen had moved away from the two that were working almost oddly in unison, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Uh, not really,” Keith admitted.

“So, what, you go catch lizards or something?” Lance motioned out the window towards the desert.

Honestly, a part of Shiro wouldn’t be particularly surprised if that _had_ happened at one point. They went camping once, and Keith was oddly prepared for living in the wilderness.

“What the _fuck_?” Keith took a step towards him, brow furrowing angrily.

“Keith,” Shiro said in warning, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. Honestly, he was pretty confident in Keith’s ability to hold his temper, it was something that he worked on a lot over the years, but hearing that he got ‘booted’ made him slightly wary.

The younger boy took a deep breath. He looked back at Shiro and said, “Adam’s been checking in on me. Brings groceries and stuff, but I’m almost out.” He then turned his attention back towards Lance. “There might still be some canned things.”

“Better than nothing.” The two of them both headed towards the little makeshift kitchen area, no doubt to see if there was anything that they could pull together.

Something tugged at Shiro’s chest at the mention of Adam, and relief washed over him. Keith hadn’t been completely ignored or shrugged aside. Of course Adam had come to help him. He felt a bit guilty for even allowing it.

He broke out of his thoughts when he heard Keith and Lance start snipping at one another again over Keith’s meager rations of food. He sighed and moved over to break it up before it got worse.

God, it was good to be back on Earth.

…

When Lance said that he was looking for a team bonding adventure, he pictured sneaking out and going into the clubs that were made specifically for teenagers, maybe score a date with a cute girl–maybe even a double date for him and Hunk, or a triple for them and Pidge! (Even though Pidge apparently had a girlfriend, what the fresh hell?)

He did not at all picture trudging through the rocky desert with the sun beating down on his head. Don’t get Lance wrong, he loved the heat, but being by the ocean and being stuck in the middle of nowhere were two completely different things. At least at the beginning of November it was slightly less hot than mid-summer.

The caves with Keith’s so-called magical energy (seriously, what the hell?) were pretty far away, so they all piled up on his hoverbike for yet another wild ride until they couldn’t go any farther in the twisting and turning cliffs and ravines.

Finally, after what felt like hours of walking (Shiro having grabbed Pidge’s bag from him when the poor little guy really started lagging behind), they came to a stop outside of a massive, looming cave.

Shivers went up Lance’s spine. This was the type of place that screamed haunted or cursed to him. “Okay, I admit it. This is super freaky.” Maybe Keith was just feeling the evil spirits here? Surely they were attracted to someone like him. Not that _anyone_ could be attracted to Keith, what with his mullet, even if it actually did look ridiculously soft. How the hell was _that_ fair?

“I’m getting a reading,” Hunk said, staring down at the device that he and Pidge had pulled together out of the junk in Keith’s shack.

“Please don’t tell me it’s coming from in there,” Lance groaned even though he already knew the answer.

“It’s coming from there,” Hunk confirmed with a nod, tapping on the screen gently before pointing at it. “I’m sure of it.”

“Looks they you were right that they’re one in the same–what you felt here and what they’re after,” Pidge noted as they walked inside of the dark cavern.

On the inside of the cave, where they could still see, there were a couple carvings there that distinctly looked like a lion. Keith motioned towards them and said, “These are the lion carvings I was telling you about. There’s only a couple. A Te-Moak Elder told me that their ancestors carved these here as a warning to avoid this cave.”

“So the Blue Lion or whatever it was is a bad thing?” Hunk asked, a bit of alarm to his voice as he pocketed the gadget he made. He looked left and right as they ventured farther inside.

“If Voltron and this ‘Blue Lion’ are one in the same, then it just might be,” Shiro said with a stern expression on his face that Lance didn’t at all like.

They walked deeper into the cave, when a deep growl suddenly echoed through the air. Keith straightened up and looked around, and Lance would forever deny the startled squeak that escaped his lips as he stumbled back a little bit. “What the _cheese_ was that?”

Lance genuinely expected to see fear, startled, or apprehensive faces on Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro, but instead, all of them just looked confused to mildly irritated.

“What was _what_?” Hunk asked, his eyebrow raising up until they almost vanished under his bangs.

“The growling!” Lance waved his hands in the air. “It was really loud, how did you not hear it? Shiro?”

“I didn’t hear anything, Lance,” the man said slowly, shaking his head.

“You do know hearing things no one else can is a bad thing, right?” Pidge side-eyed him critically, as if trying to see if he was going to go insane or not.

Humiliation flushed through Lance, and he opened his mouth to argue when Keith spoke up. “I heard it too.”

“Huh?”

“I believe you, I heard it too,” he replied almost earnestly, which, what the heck? Keith never looked like that. He was always mean and cranky and looking down at him.

Lance didn’t quite know what to make of that development, shuffling a bit before moving in front of everyone else to lead the way down the cave. He barely got a few steps before the rock beneath his feet started to glow brightly.

Blue light surrounded him, and the next thing Lance knew, his stomach leapt up into his throat and he was _falling_ and okay yes, maybe he was screaming too, but so was everyone else. The cavern was lit up with an eerie, bright blue glow, giving him only a second’s warning that he was about to hit the water below him.

Luckily, they weren’t falling from high enough for the water to actually hurt them, though it still did sting a bit both from the impact and the coldness. Lance had no idea how deep it was, though he could vaguely see the others slamming into the water around him and struggling to the surface as well. Everything below them looked pitch black, which was never a good sign. God, Lance really hoped that nothing lived down there.

He gasped and splashed a bit as he got to the surface, breathing heavily as everyone else surfaced around him too.

“What just happened?” Hunk cried out as he treaded water not very far from Lance, dipping under from time to time because Hunk was many things, but a truly graceful swimmer was not one of them. His voice cracked as he asked, “And why is it light in here we’re in a cave!”

“Because of that,” Pidge spoke up, his voice in pure awe over everything else as he pointed behind Lance, and probably would have ended up sinking under the water if Shiro wouldn’t have grabbed him.

Also, props to Shiro for being able to swim with a probably heavy metal arm.

Lance twisted around in the water with ease, not bothered at all by the heaviness that his wet clothes added to it. What he saw made his eyes widen and his mouth actually fall open.

There was a massive, glowing blue sphere at the end of the cavern that they were in, a pathway of water leading towards it.

Keith was the first one to move, swimming towards the sphere before anyone could stop him. Lance instantly kicked forward, determined to beat him there first. There was no way he was letting Keith beat him in swimming! His Mamá always said that he was a mermaid born without fins.

It only took him a couple seconds of a front crawl to realize that though there was a deep drop off where they had landed in the first place, the watery trail they were swimming down was rapidly becoming more shallow as the rocky bottom sloped upwards.

Lance pulled himself up first, well aware that his clothes were heavy and clinging to him as he said, “I win!” He spun around to look at Keith, who was staring at him with a raised eyebrow, black hair clinging to his skin that looked milky white in the eerie blue glow.

He quickly turned around to face away from him, hearing Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro splashing up behind them. He looked up towards the blue sphere, realizing that the glow was coming from what looked like interlocked glowing lines, a dark figure sitting inside like some strange snow globe. His abuela collected a lot of those.

A shiver rushed up his spine when he realized _what_ was inside of the sphere, gasping in shock when he met a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

Something fell over him, chilled but so very welcoming like the ocean waters back home, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of the robotic blue lion if he tried.

“Is this it?” Pidge breathed out in awe from somewhere behind Lance. “Is this the Voltron?”

“It…must be,” Shiro said, though he didn’t sound quite certain about that.

“This is what's been causing all this crazy energy out here.” Keith walked forward, his feet sloshing through the shallow water that surrounded the lion until he got to a rocky platform at her feet. He glanced back at them quickly, eyes wide. “It’s the same energy I’ve been feeling this whole time.”

Suddenly, Lance believed it, because he felt like there was something buzzing underneath his skin. He wasn’t at all afraid as he walked closer to her. "Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?"

Shiro hummed, looking up at the lion curiously. “No, not really.”

Lance moved left and right slightly, almost colliding with Hunk. The eyes on the lion may have been a solid yellow, but Lance could still tell that they were on _him_ specifically. "Yeah. The eyes are totally following me." He should be a little more freaked out about this, shouldn’t he? He wasn’t though. Something felt warm and comforting and just right.

This lion was calling to him.

Keith, no doubt eager about finding the source of the energy he’d been feeling for the past months, ran ahead of them, looking up at the force field. He reached forward, pressing his hand against the force field that was around the lion, the surface rippling like glowing water under his finger tips.

“Keith!” Shiro scolded him. “What if that was electrified? You’re soaked!”

“It’s not though,” Keith replied, completely missing the point, earning a deep sigh from Shiro, whose shoulders slumped in response.

“Yeah maybe we shouldn’t touch strange alien stuff?” Hunk twisted his vest, accidentally getting some of it on Pidge, who glared up a him. “Sorry.”

Keith chose to ignore all of them, because of course he did, running his hands over the surface and looking at the lion with almost excited eyes. “I wonder how we get through this?”

Lance stepped up onto the platform beside him and shrugged. “Maybe you just have to knock.” He lifted his hand up, rapping his fist against the force field. 

Honestly, he wasn’t expecting anything of it, a part of him just wanted to touch the glowing barrier without looking as ridiculous as Keith did. But then there was a flash of light, and a yell of surprise (a very manly one, thank you very much) escaped his lips as the lions eyes began to glow brighter, and the shield vanished.

The ground underneath Lance and Keith started to glow just like it had in the other cave, and he was starting to brace himself to end up somewhere else as a whirlwind kicked up out of nowhere.

He met the lion’s glowing yellow eyes, and suddenly, he was seeing a red one, a yellow one, a green one, and a black one. Then he saw a them all combine together into a giant robot.

Lance shook his head, coming back into himself as the visions ended. He looked around wildly, his head spinning over everything that had just been poured into it. “Did…did everyone else just see that?” A quick look beside him saw Keith’s face open in pure awe. Shiro looked completely astounded, Pidge looked kind of terrified as he clung to his backpack straps as if they were the only thing grounding him, and Hunk was…sitting on the floor for some reason.

Hunk’s eyes almost bulged out of his head as he exclaimed, "Voltron is a robot! Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!"

That seemed to snap Pidge out of his daze. "And this thing is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are?”

“This is it,” Shiro said seriously. “This is what they’re looking for.” Right, there were evil aliens looking for this. Always good to remember that.

“Incredible,” Keith breathed out, unable to say anything else.

A whirring, clanking sound fill the air as the lion started to move all on her own. She leaned her head down, prompting Hunk and Pidge to yell and cringe away. Despite the fact that there was a giant, metal, lion head directly in front of him, Lance didn’t feel that same fear. It was like something was whispering to him that everything would be alright.

“Uh, hi there,” he said, reaching a hand out and pressing it against the metal muzzle. She wasn’t cold like he expected, since she was underground in a chilly cavern surrounded by water (or maybe it just felt chilly to him because he was still soaked). Instead, it was warm and almost comforting.

His hand fell to his side as the lion opened her mouth, revealing what looked like an entry ramp that led up to a series of passages.

Lance stared at it, and barely thought out the next thing he did, because this was an alien ship and it was clearly inviting _him_ inside. Not Shiro. Not Keith. _Him_. A chuckle escaped his lips, and he rushed up without hesitation.

He looked at the three different ways that he could go before deciding that straight was probably the best idea, even if it ended up going up and around, leading into what had to be a cockpit. Everything seemed to be made up of blacks, whites, silvers, and dusty blues, and honestly, he really liked it.

There was a single seat in there, and after a glance around to see if there was anything that could or would try to stop him, he sat down on the chair. Holy crow, he was in an alien ship, sitting in the pilot’s seat! He couldn’t help but feel like all of the heroes he watched in movies growing up.

Leaning back, he crossed his arms like he had seen the heroes in those do many times, crossing one leg over the other as he said, “Here we go.” So sue him, he was having a moment.

Then the chair jerked forward, causing him to scream and jerk with it, nearly flying forward off of it as it came to a stop. He could hear the footsteps of the others coming up behind him at the same time as the console in front of him came to life with blue light. Everything seemed to be a sort of holographic system with screens overlapping one another.

Then the black wall in front of him flickered to life, and they could see into the cave with startling clarity. This wasn’t like night vision, they could actually make out the colours.

“Alright, very nice!” he admired. Pidge came up on one side of him, gaping in pure awe.

Naturally though, Hunk broke in with his stuttering logic. “Okay guys. I really feel the need to point out, just so we’re all, you know, aware, but we’re in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now.”

“It’s a lion,” Keith replied, and Lance actually snorted. Picking out the important things, wasn’t he?

That was when he felt it. It was like there was something else in the room with them, clearly telling Lance what he had to do. It was cool, but almost…matronly, reminding him of his Mamá in a sense. Maybe trusting things that were projecting ideas in your mind wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but Lance couldn’t help himself. He did trust it.

“Did you guys hear that?” he asked, almost hoping that Keith would agree with him like he had in the tunnel.

“Hear what?” Nope. Mullet was letting him down once again, as mullet’s do.

Still, Lance had no time to focus on atrocious hair, keeping his attention on the console. “I…I think she’s talking to me.” He leaned closer to the console, looking at all the different buttons and translating what the thoughts the lion poured into his mind might mean.

He followed the sequence, and then the entire ship shook. Once again, Pidge and Hunk were screaming, and Lance was kind of thankful for Shiro, and yes, Keith too, for keeping their cool.

The lion roared loudly, and more thoughts flooded his brain. He reached forward, grabbing what looked almost like two gear shifts. "OK. Got it. Now let's try this."

Lance couldn’t wait to brag to Veronica that _he_ got to fly an alien spaceship!

He thrust the controls forward, and the lion responded, leaping up from the ground and careening up quicker than any fighter jet could ever hope to, slamming through the walls of the cave until they exploded out of the side of the mountain, which their ships definitely would have broken from.

A wave of excitement rushed through Lance, and he wasn’t sure if it belonged to him or the lion.

He lost complete control of the ship–almost like it was on autopilot as the lion flipped through the air excitedly, roaring and stretching, like she was testing out how everything worked.

Not everyone appreciated this though. To stop themselves from flying all over, the others had grabbed onto Lance’s seat and each other–and maybe Hunk’s hand was gripping his hair painfully, what the hell Hunk?

“You are the _worst_ pilot ever!” Keith yelled at him, his voice higher than Lance had ever heard it before.

He was about to reply when the lion gained even more speed, and he couldn’t stop himself from screaming along with the rest of them. The lion flipped around, going in joyful circles a few more times before she apparently decided that actually running on the ground was a good idea for a warm-up exercise.

Lance couldn’t stop himself from laughing in excitement as the entire cockpit shook along with the motions. It felt so different from the controls of either a cargo or jet plane. This felt way more natural.

"Isn't this awesome?" Lance yelled out happily.

“Make it stop! Make it stop!" Hunk practically pleaded, eyes watering and looking like he was about to hurl.

"I'm not making it do anything,” Lance said, almost smugly. “It's like she's on autopilot!"

Then the lion suddenly took off into the air again, streaking towards the sky as Keith yelled, “Where are you going?”

Rolling his eyes, Lance glanced over his shoulder at him. “Well Keith, I _did_ just say she’s on autopilot.” A little screen appeared before him, but he had no idea what kind of alien language was on it. “Uh…” Images and thoughts overcame him, and he realized what it meant. “She says there’s an alien ship approaching Earth and we have to stop it.”

Pidge leaned forward, staring at him with a frown. “What _exactly_ did it say?”

“It’s not like words, more like ideas? Kind of.” It was really, really hard to explain, but hell, he was apparently communicating with a _sentient_ alien ship, and that was just plain awesome. And apparently they were going to save the world from aliens. This was like every sci-fi action movie he idolized growing up!

Hunk looked towards him, holding onto the seat for dear life still. "Well, if this thing is the weapon they're coming for, why don't we just, like—I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone.” He paused and then looked up. “Sorry, Lion, nothing personal."

“You don’t understand,” Shiro argued, practically glaring at Hunk, which, yikes, Lance was glad that glare wasn’t directed at him. “These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead."

Lance turned his attention to Hunk with a raised eyebrow, able to see Keith giving him a similar look out of the corner of his eye.

“Oh…uh…never mind?” Hunk practically squeaked out.

Turning his attention forward, Lance realized that they had already left the atmosphere. His eyes widened as his breath left him at the sight of Earth below them. It was _incredible_ to see from up here. Simulations really didn’t do it justice, and this is what Lance had wanted all his life. What everyone told him he could never do.

Keep it in, he thought to himself, taking a couple calming breaths. Not that there was really time to get lost in the beauty of Earth from space, not when a _massive_ alien ship appeared before them, lit up with eerie purple lights.

Lance was completely at a loss for words, and was kind of thankful everyone else seemed speechless too.

Hunk was the one to break the shocked silence. “Holy crow! Is that _really_ an alien ship?”

The lion flew around the ship, turning so they could get a better look at it. Yup, it was still terrifying from this point of view too.

“They found me,” Shiro whispered in horror, and for some reason, that struck something inside of Lance that lit him up with indignation. Who did these aliens think they were?

The sudden onslaught of purple lasers actually answered that pretty well.

“We’ve got to—“ Pidge started to yell, but Lance cut him off.

“Hang on!” He took control, dodging around the lasers that were trying to hit them. The lion was definitely helping him, but it also felt like she was relying on him to outrun this mess too, while also feeding more ideas into his brain. “Alright, okay. Okay. I think I know what to do!”

Pidge slipped into his point of view, looking positively gobsmacked at that. “This isn’t a simulator! You have to be careful.”

Lance gritted his teeth. He _knew_ that. This was real. This was him flying a lion-ship with four other passengers that didn’t have any kind of seats, let alone safety harnesses, and they were being shot at by hostile aliens.

“Probably a good thing,” he sniped back sarcastically. “I always wreck the simulator.” He then pressed another one of the controls, and the lion’s mouth opened, a powerful blue beam of light shooting from her mouth into the side of the ship and ripping a long line in it. It wasn’t quite enough though.

Instead, Lance flew the lion right to the surface of the ship, using her metal nails to rip open more of the hull.

“Nice job, Lance!” Shiro praised, and he felt a thrill rush through him at that. Was he going to cry because Takashi Shirogane, his _hero_ thought he was going to do a nice job? No, but he kind of wanted to.

He had to focus, because that ship, had some nasty weapons on it, and it was getting really close to Earth. They needed to get it away from there. When he told this to the others, they instantly agreed with him.

This was what they were after, right? So hopefully it would follow them. If these things were bad enough to hurt Shiro like that, he didn’t want them anywhere _near_ his family.

The lion streaked by the ship, and he saw it turning to follow them, Lance’s first instinct was to be excited over it. Then he realized that the alien ship that had just attacked them, and that they had attacked in return, was following them.

"They're gaining on us!" Pidge cried out, his fingers curling against Lance’s seat.

“But they’re not shooting at us,” Lance realized. They were definitely in range of firing, but there was nothing. “They’re…they’re just _chasing_ us.”

“And that’s a good thing?” Hunk burst out wildly. “I am _not_ at all on board with this new direction, guys.”

They were moving so quickly that there wasn’t really anything to focus on, it was all just a blur by the windows, and honestly was giving Lance a bit of a headache.

“Where are we?” Keith asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked at some of the other screens around them.

Shiro reached over him and pointed at what looked like a map. “That’s Kerberos.”

“It takes _months_ for our ships to get out this far,” Pidge pointed out. “We got out here in like 10 seconds. How are we not dead from the G-force alone?”

Lance ignored him, because the lion was talking to him again, telling him it would be okay, that everything was going to be fine. Yet another blue-tinted window of light appeared in front of him, a strange symbol on it. “Alright then.” He pressed the button, and a moment later, a glowing blue circle appeared not far from them.

“What…is that?” Hunk asked, alarmed.

“This may sound crazy,” Lance said, biting his lip, “but I think the Lion wants us to go through there."

“Uh…and where does there go?” Pidge asked aloud.

“I…don’t know. She won’t say.” He couldn’t do this, he couldn’t make this decision, because he was sure that this was a one-way trip. Oh god, he never got to apologize to Veronica for snapping at her. He didn’t get to say goodbye to his Mamá. “Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What should we do?" He couldn’t make this decision. He _couldn’t_.

Shiro was silent, staring at the portal in front of them. "Whatever's happening, the Lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it, but we're a team now. We should decide together."

A team. Is that what they were? He was already one with Pidge and Hunk, but Keith and Shiro too?

A heavy silence settled over them, and then Pidge screwed his face into one of determination, gripping his backpack tightly with one hand, the other settling on his shoulder. Hunk took a deep breath, but shifted closer. Keith stayed silent, giving no protest to what they were going to do.

Lance thought of his sister. Of his mother. Of his father. “All right,” he choked out. He cleared his throat, making himself sound more confident as he sarcastically said, “Looks like we’re all ditching class tomorrow.”

He pressed forward, urging the lion into the gaping darkness of the portal. Where they were going, Lance couldn’t even begin to fathom, but there was no turning back now.

He set out from the Garrison the night before looking for an adventure, and it looked like he got exactly that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You made it to the end! Congrats! Let me know what you guys think so far. Remember, in the beginning it will be very similar to the show, but we branch out more and more as we go. You'll probably also notice me actually laying groundwork for things that are coming later. 
> 
> Again, if you recognize any of the dialogue from the show, I take absolutely no credit for it. Though I do take credit for the decision that Keith swears a lot. He strikes me as the type. 
> 
> The next chapter probably won't be up for about another month. You can see how big this one is, so it takes time to write things this massive. 
> 
> Any comments at all mean a lot, and if you're curious about anything, don't hesitate to ask! Some things I'm keeping to myself about, but some things I'm going to be pretty forward about involving choices in this story.
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> **Chapter Edited By:[Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon) & [MsBlueBell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsBluebell/)**


	3. To Seek And Find

The pulsing and shaking of the lion as they went through what could only be a wormhole was absolutely nauseating. Pidge would have been thrown back onto Shiro, had she not managed to sink her nails into the padding of Lance’s seat. Not that it really helped all that much.

She didn’t dare open her eyes, terrified that she might just lose it if she could see what was going on around them.

Finally, the quaking came to a stop, the lion flying smoothly again. She took a deep breath, opening her eyes and staring out the window, trying to stop the nervous chatter of her teeth. Also, she was pretty sure that her eye was twitching. That was fine. She was fine. They just went through a theoretical wormhole in an alien ship after being chased by another alien ship– likely the same ones that had kidnapped her father and brother. It was fine. They were all fine.

“Woah,” Lance breathed out, sounding awed, though the way his fingers clutched the stick made it painfully obvious that he was just as shaken as she was. “That was—“

Hunk cut him off by doubling over and losing it on the floor. Lance grimaced and turned away, while Pidge had to stop and blink her eyes at the awful smell. Behind them, Keith shifted further away from him.

“So, so sorry,” Hunk breathed out before bending over once again.

“I’m surprised it took this long,” Pidge replied honestly, because yeah, Hunk had managed to keep it together this entire time, and that was pretty impressive. She turned her attention back to the outside of the ship, where a massive planet waited in front of them.

The first thing she noticed was just  _ how _ much it looked like Earth with blue water, green land, and stretches of white clouds. Instantly, her mind went over what possible planets this could be. They had discovered quite a few that inhabited the Goldilocks Zone of different star systems and really seemed to be Earth-like, so maybe this was one of those? It could have been that one in the Kepler system that really seemed similar to Earth.

“I don't recognize any of these constellations,” Shiro spoke up from behind her. “We must be a long, long way from Earth."

Okay, so maybe  _ not _ the Kepler system. It really made Pidge wonder just where they were.

"The Lion seems to want to go to this planet,” Lance said, doing that weird thing again where the spaceship was apparently talking to him, and him alone. That was more than a little freaky. “I think…I think she’s going home.”

The lion zoomed forward into the atmosphere of the planet, causing everything inside of the cockpit to shake again. Pidge cringed, holding on firmly. This time though, Shiro grabbed the chair with one arm and her shoulder with the other, and honestly, that helped a little bit. Because if even  _ Keith _ was gripping onto the back of the seat tightly, then she probably needed it. 

“Guys, personal bubble!” Lance cried out eventually, though he mostly just cringed away from Hunk. “And your breath is  _ killing _ me.”

That seemed to set the larger boy off. “Is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole? And no offense, but why are we listening to a robotic lion  _ anyway _ ?” He sent Lance a very pointed look, and honestly, it was a good question.

“It got us away from that alien warship, didn’t it?” Lance shot back, almost like  _ he _ was personally offended.

Keith leaned over the chair and said, “Dunno if you noticed, but we’re  _ in _ an alien warship.”

Lance raised an eyebrow, lips twisting up into a teasing smirk. “What’s the matter,  _ scared _ ?”

“With  _ you _ at the helm?  _ Terrified _ .” Pidge snorted at the quick clapback, and almost wanted to request a high-five from Keith. He really didn’t seem like the type of guy that did high-fives though. 

“Alright, knock it off!” Shiro scolded them. “No one's happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together."

Oh my god, it was like getting scolded by her  _ father _ . Pidge turned her attention to him and asked, “What do we do?”

“First we find out where we’re headed. Lance?” Shiro turned his attention towards him, along with everyone else.

Was it just her, or was Lance practically preening under the attention? At least for a second, until his expression fell. “I don’t know.” Realizing that everyone was still staring at him, he said, “I’m sorry. The lion’s not talking to me anymore.” His eyebrows suddenly shot up. “Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait! Shh. Listen. I think I hear something!”

Pidge focused, and caught on to what he was talking about. Why did it seem so familiar?

“I’m hearing it too,” Keith said seriously.

“It’s…kind of a high-pitched squealing sound?” Hunk suggested.

Then the smell hit them along with the noise, and they all cried out in disgust.

“Come on, Lance!” Hunk yelled at him, while Pidge genuinely felt like she was going to hurl. It was bad enough that this place already smelled like vomit. God, if the lion really was sentient, she felt  _ so _ bad for it.

“Why are you like this?” Keith groaned. His voice was muffled, but his eyes promised murder.

Lance looked beyond smug as he took in everyone’s reactions, and Pidge made a mental note to smack him silly later if Keith didn’t do something about this. “But seriously, there’s a castle up ahead.” He spoke so casually, like this was just an everyday kind of thing. It made her question what kind of coping mechanism he actually had. 

Pidge looked up, still holding her hands over her nose. The castle before them was massive, consisting of one main part and four large spires around it. Pidge had never seen metal so white before, and the aqua detailing made it almost impossible to look at in the sunlight.

That wasn’t the only thing she noticed though. As they drew closer, she realized that everything looked a little bit  _ wrong _ . The water was a little too vibrant at its deepest parts, the sky a little too green, the dirt a little too grey. It was like something had tried to paint a picture of Earth, but didn’t quite have the right paint colours to use. It was uncanny.

As they approached, the five spires suddenly started glowing at the tips, the light traveling down the aqua surfaces. They didn’t have enough time to take that in though as the lion landed roughly on the ground, right in front of a massive set of doors.

No one moved at first, staring at the strange castle with various wary expressions. It was Shiro that broke the silence with a simple order, “Keep your guard up.”

Pidge looked back up at him, worry building within her. “Something wrong?”

"My crew was captured by aliens once,” Shiro explained, making direct eye contact with her. “I'm not going to let it happen again."

Her heart leapt a bit at that. Oh god, did he  _ know _ ? He  _ must _ know. He spent months in space with her father and brother, and Pidge was well aware of just how much she looked like Matt at the moment. Shiro had to know who she was.

Yet, he didn’t say anything about it to any of the others. That was something she appreciated a lot. She didn’t want anyone to treat her differently just because she was a 15-year-old girl, and not the short 17-year-old boy she was pretending to be. 

Despite her apprehension for being on an alien planet, Pidge was eager to get out of the lion that reeked of Hunk’s puke and Lance’s gas. Why were guys so gross? No offense to Shiro and Keith, they both seemed properly disgusted,  _ though _ she had seen Keith eat cold canned soup that morning, so he was on thin ice too.

The second that they were all out of the lion, it started moving on its own, and Hunk instantly screamed about how he knew it was going to eat them (which…technically it had because they had gone into its mouth). Instead of eating them though, it roared loudly.

Aqua light spread across the giant doors in front of them, and they slowly started to slide open, revealing a long, dark hallway.

“Oh, it opened the door,” Hunk said, peering out from where he had been hiding behind Shiro. He looked back towards the lion and added, “I guess I was wrong about you.”

Pidge really hoped that she was giving him a disbelieving look somewhere close to the caliber of Keith and Lance’s expressions.

Keith was the first one to start walking towards the open door, and really, that shouldn’t have surprised Pidge, because this was the guy who had touched an alien force field without hesitation.

“What are you doing?” Lance demanded.

Without pausing, Keith glanced over his shoulder and said, “The lion brought us here for a reason. We’ve got to go in at some point.”

“Well, I’m going in before you!” Lance ran after him, and Pidge was sorely tempted to ask what his deal with Keith was. Maybe Hunk would know, but he was clearly close to losing it right now that the adrenaline was wearing off and they were left with the consequences of what they had done.

The castle was eerily dark as they walked inside, their footsteps echoed through a large antechamber.

Pidge nearly jumped out of her skin when Hunk suddenly yelled, “Hello?” The hesitant greeting resonated through the darkened chamber, and she was just barely able to make out his shrug in response to everyone staring at him again.

She huffed slightly and looked around, able to make out the faint outline of stairs. “Huh, you know, from the size of the lion, I expected the steps to be bigger.” They weren’t though. They were just about the same size as stairs on Earth were. Maybe they weren’t going to be ambushed by giants just yet.

As if her voice activated something, the surrounding area became engulfed in an aqua light, a digital voice saying, “Hold for identity scan.”

Shiro was angrily demanding what the castle–or whoever was running it–wanted from them, but Pidge was too distracted by watching the light creep up her body. She wondered what kind of data could be pulled from that. Could they read their genetic sequencing from a little scan like that? Human technology had come a long way, but they couldn’t do something quite so sophisticated. 

All around them crystals starting glowing with the same pale blue light, illuminating the entire room, revealing it to be almost entirely white with accents of black to it.

Pidge stared at the hallway as it was slowly illuminated and looked back at her companions. “I guess we’re going that way?” No one else seemed to have a better suggestion, and everywhere else was pitch black, so that was where they ended up going.

Somehow, Pidge ended up leading the way through the halls, Hunk taking up the rear. He kept calling out to see if someone would answer, but the entire castle was eerily quiet. Why would the lion bring them there if there was no one there at all? Where had all the people gone?

The halls seemed to go on forever, until they were finally led into a large, round room. Pidge looked around them in awe as Lance asked, “Where are we?”

"It's some kind of control room,” she noted, resting her hand on it. The controls suddenly came to life, and Pidge gasped, yanking her hand back from it. There was a hissing down behind them, causing everyone to turn in time to see two things that suspiciously reminded her of cryogenic tubes appear, the distinct shape of human-like lifeforms inside.

“Are these guys dead?” Hunk asked from where he was standing away from the pods. Honestly, Pidge couldn’t really blame him.

Had they come this far just to find a couple of dead aliens?

One of the pods suddenly lit up, and Pidge held her breath as the surface began to disappear in a shower of sparkles and light.

…

_ “Father…please…” _

Allura’s eyes snapped open as she lurched forward, calling out, “Father!” She tried to grab for where he had been just moments ago, but ended up stumbling on her painfully stiff legs, tumbling forward.

Someone caught her, and she regained her bearings, catching her breath for a moment before she looked up. At first glance, she had to stare, because the dark skin and blue eyes reminded her of her father, but then everything else settled into place, and it was all just  _ wrong _ .

His—she assumed it was a he—face turned red as his eyebrows rose. “Well  _ hello _ .”

Feeling more than a little confused and overwhelmed, she asked, “Who are you? Where am I?” A quick glance around told her that she was still in her castle, but she didn’t recognize this boy at all.

“I’m Lance,” he said, his voice going a tad deeper. “And you’re right here in my arms.”

Glancing back up at him, unimpressed by what was  _ very _ clearly a pick-up line (it looked like more than one species did that), Allura was instantly distracted by something very obvious.

“Your ears,” she noted.

“Yeah?” his eyes darted sideways as if he didn’t know what the problem was.

She took a step back, unable to hide her disgust. “They’re hideous! What’s wrong with them?” They were big and round, and definitely not something an Altean would have. That alone was enough to tell her that he wasn’t the same species as her. His lack of markings by his eyes said as much. 

“Nothing’s wrong with them!” He narrowed his eyes and leaned in a bit. “They heard  _ exactly _ what you said about them.”

The sudden aggression startled her, and by sheer reflex alone, she grabbed one of those big, hideous ears, using them to twist the boy around, forcing him to his knees so that she was holding his arms and he was facing away from her. For having such a deep voice moments ago, he did have a really high-pitched scream, didn’t he?

"Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my Castle?" she demanded, not intending to let him go until he talked.

"A giant blue lion brought us here! That's all we know!"

Allura instantly let go of him, taking in the sight of the others that were around him. They had the same hideous ears (albeit, they didn’t stick out quite as much as the loud boy’s), though like Alteans they all had different skin tones. Their hair and eyes were rather boring, if she was allowed to say so. Alteans had vibrant hair colours unless they were a part of the royal family.

"How do you have the Blue Lion? What happened to its Paladin? What are you all doing here?” She looked at one that appeared to be a young child, to a tall large one, to a pale-skinned boy, to the one that  _ looked _ like the leader of this bunch. She directed her attention to him.

“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man with the white in his hair said. Did he have some form of special power like her? She could tell that he had been touched by quintessence just from looking at him. “Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help."

She looked around, taking in just what room she was in. At first, she had assumed that it was the med bay, but then realized that no, it wasn’t. Those pods  _ could _ do what these ones did, but these were made for something very specific.

Her stomach dropped. The last thing Allura remembered was reaching out for her father. “No.” He hadn’t. There was no possible way. “No, no, no. How long has it been?” She lurched forward, almost tripping over the hem of her dress as she got to the controls.

“What’s wrong?” the man asked her again, sympathy passing across his grey eyes.

"I am Princess Allura, daughter of King Alfor of planet Altea,” she answered, pressing her palms to the console, causing it to light up in front of her. “I need to find out where we are, and how long we’ve been asleep.”

The little one watched with interest. “Oh, that’s how that works.”

Allura glanced up at a hissing noise, only really realizing that there was a second pod beside the one she had been in. Her heart leapt, because maybe,  _ just maybe _ it was who she hoped it was. Allura didn’t  _ remember _ going into the pod, so someone had to have put her in there, right?

When she first caught sight of the thick orange moustache, her heart fell, but then relief hit her as she kept looking for the answers she was seeking. At least she had Coran with her at the moment. He’d have some answers.

“Enemy combatants!” he yelled suddenly, jumping at the one that had caught her. Lance, was it?

Lance simply side-stepped Coran, staring at him with what  _ looked _ like amusement, but who knew with whatever species they were (certainly not Altean).

"Quiznak!” Coran cried out as he stumbled. “You're lucky I have a case of the old ‘Sleep Chamber Knees’. Otherwise, I'd grab your head like this, wrap you up like so and—one, two, three—" He imitating fighting moves and then snapped his fingers. “—Sleepy time!”

“Well,” Lance replied. “Before you did that, I’d—Hoo! Ha! Hiyah!" Was that supposed to be some form of fighting? It wasn’t very good, was it?

“Oh, really?” Coran shot back at him. “Well how could you do that when I've already come at you with this?”

Allura ignored the ridiculousness as she finally found what she was looking for. Even though the castle itself had clearly been asleep as well, it still recorded time, updating its files from things that were sent across certain frequencies.

Her stomach dropped, and she had to grab onto the console as nausea overtook her. Oh Ancients, this couldn’t be happening. This had to be a mistake.

“It can’t be,” she choked out, blinking rapidly to stop the tears that prickled behind her eyes. She would  _ not _ cry in front of these strangers.

“What is it?” Coran asked, turning his attention from the strangers to her, thick brows knitting together with concern.

"We've been asleep for 5,000 years!" How did this happen? How could this be possible? She didn’t remember  _ anything _ from what happened before now? Her father, she had been reaching for her father, but why?

“I don’t—I don’t remember.” Her fingers curled into fists. “I don’t know what happened? Why are we on…Arus. I don’t even recognize this planet!”

“Allura.” Coran spoke calmly, soothingly, placing his hand on her arm. “We’re here because I flew the ship here after you were put in a pod and joined you. Mine was set to open when yours did.” He hesitated. “You don’t remember what happened?”

“I—“

_ “Zarkon!” _

_ “Your fleet has been destroyed, Alfor.” _

_ “We must form Voltron and fight!” _

_ “It’s already too late. _

_ “We must send them away.” _

_ “We can’t give up!” _

_ “I’m sorry, daughter.” _

_ “Father!” _

_ “I love you.” _

“No,” she breathed out as her memories came back. Zarkon destroying the last of the Altean fleet. Wanting to use Voltron to fight back. Her father refusing, saying that Voltron needed to be sent away.

Her father putting her to sleep.

Allura jerked away from Coran, fingers flying over the console. She had to know. She had to see it. She searched through the star systems, knowing that they would have been kept up to date as much as possible even when they were asleep.

“This can’t be right.” She pressed a button, and stars erupted around them, a projection of a once familiar star system that was now empty or partially destroyed. “It’s gone. Altea is gone. Coran! Coran, this can’t be right!” She turned to him, grabbing his arms and shaking them almost desperately. “What happened? What did father do? No, no, what did  _ Zarkon _ do?” She spat out the name as pure contempt washed through her body.

Zarkon, who had once been one of her father’s closest friends. Zarkon, who had given her presents as a child with a smile, who had wished her Happy Name Day every year.

Zarkon, who had destroyed  _ everything _ .

“Zarkon?” The question startled her, and brought Allura back to the present. She turned to face the five strange aliens that had awoken them. They were so Altean-like, aside from the differences she noticed, that it was almost unnerving. She’d never met another species that looked  _ so _ much like her before.

She narrowed her eyes at them, shifting from one to the other. Their quintessence was similar—though the one that had spoken—the one she assumed to be the leader—had a ragged, almost damaged feel to it. Someone had hurt him. Someone that knew a thing or two about quintessence. After 5,000 years though, Allura couldn’t even imagine who or what could have done that. The one with the big ears—Lance, the little one, and the big one all felt the same, though the colours shifting around them were different. The one in red was odd though. Very, very similar to the others, but every once in awhile it would pulse, as if reaching out or responding to the things around it.

None of them felt wrong, not like Zarkon, his witch, and a few select others had. And they talked about the Blue Lion bringing them here. Allura didn’t know them, she had no reason to trust them, but she could trust Blue. Though Red would always be important to her, Blue held a place in her heart. The lion’s kindness was unmatched. She even reached out to Allura as a child, if only to amuse a little girl who so badly wanted to be a Paladin. Yes, she could trust Blue.

“Zarkon was the Emperor of the Galra.” She crossed her arms in front of her, feeling her own anger pulse through her. “A vile creature and enemy to all free people." Galra were long-lived, as were Alteans, but none of them lived anywhere close to 5,000 years.

She couldn’t imagine that whatever reign Zarkon left behind would be any kind of good.

Then the one with the frayed quintessence said something that made her blood freeze. “I remember now…I was his prisoner.”

“He’s alive?” She took a few steps towards him. “That’s  _ impossible _ !” She stopped herself, clenching her shaking fists at her sides. “Who are you? How did you get the Blue Lion to take you here?”

“I’m Shiro,” he answered, a kindness to his voice that she wasn’t accustomed too. “We’re all from a planet very far from here called Earth. Our people have just started exploring space, and I was on a mission to explore a moon when the Galra captured me and my crew. I don’t remember much about what happened, but I know that their leader’s name is Zarkon.”

“Earth,” Coran repeated, giving Allura a chance to actually absorb that information. “I’ve never heard of that planet. It must be quite far away. How did you end up with the Blue Lion?”

“She was hidden beneath the ground,” Lance said. “Keith here wandered in circles for months claiming to feel some kind of energy or something that was probably her.” He motioned to the boy with the odd quintessence, who crossed his arms and looked back at him unimpressed. “Pidge here had been tracking radio noise from space and they were all like ‘yeah we’re looking for Voltron’, and then Hunk here made this awesome thing that was able to actually locate Blue. We ended up in her water cave somehow—which, yeah, wet jeans really suck is there anything we can do about that—and she let us in, we fought a ship, went through a wormhole, and here we are. Right here at your service.” He winked at Allura.

She narrowed her eyes at him, entirely unimpressed. “Well, Blue must have brought you here for a reason. She wouldn’t have done so otherwise.” 

Her mind spun. 5,000 years had passed. Her home was destroyed. Her people were very likely gone—she couldn’t see her father abandoning them. The lions were hidden away if her memories were right. Their Paladins would be long dead. The monster that caused all of this was  _ still _ alive. Now there were five strangers—five  _ aliens _ —standing in her castle (the  _ only _ living things in her castle), and she had no idea what to do about any of this.

She didn’t quite know what to do now.

“We need to know more,” she decided, looking over at Coran. “We need to find out what happened.” Her attention turned to Shiro. “You were his prisoner; do you know anything more?”

“He’s searching for something called Voltron,” Shiro said after a moment, looking a bit conflicted. “We know that it’s five lions combined together—the Blue Lion showed us that much.”

“Uh, we saw one of his ships, right?” Hunk asked, tapping his fingers together in what appeared to be nervousness. “That thing was huge and packed a punch. Why would he need another weapon?”

“Because he knows that it’s the  _ only _ thing that can defeat him,” Allura decided, because unless something insane happened over the past 5,000 years, she doubted that anything quite like Voltron had been forged again,  _ especially _ if Zarkon himself was still looking for it.

She  _ couldn’t _ let Voltron fall into Zarkon’s hands, but what could she do? Allura had no clue where the lions had gone after she fell asleep. Turning to Coran, she asked, “Did father tell you anything? I remember him saying that he had to hide the lions.”

“No.” Coran shook his head. “He met with the other Paladins, and they sent the lions to the far corners of space on their own with one goal: to find a safe planet far from one another and to hide.”

Her mind desperately ran over all of this information, her heart pounding in the right side of her chest to the point where she could almost see it.

Allura’s head suddenly snapped towards Lance. “You called Blue ‘she’. How did you know that?”

“Uh, she told me?” Lance asked, his voice rising as he took a couple steps back, hand twitching protectively by the ear she had pulled earlier.

“She chose you,” Allura breathed out in realization. The Blue Lion had chosen a new Paladin. Her eyes snapped to the other four in the room. No, she hadn’t just chosen  _ her _ new Paladin, she had brought along all  _ five _ of them. “We need to find Voltron before he does.”

“How?” Pidge asked, fiddling with his glasses. “Crazy guy here says that they spread out pretty far and wide.”

For the first time, Allura smiled. “You’re right.” She turned to face Lance again. “And that’s exactly why  _ you’re _ going to help us.”

Lance blinked a few times, pointing at himself, before smirking and resting his hand by his chin as he raised an eyebrow, “Any way I can be of service to  _ you _ , Princess.”

Keith sighed and looked like he wanted to smack him. Allura got the feeling that they were going to get along swimmingly.

…

Quintessence was a volatile, powerful energy. It could heal and wound, create and destroy. It was life itself at its simplest. Yet, it was hard to truly grasp and understand, and a single person couldn’t hope to do it in a single lifetime.

Haggar had lived ten lifetimes, and she discovered new things about it every passing day.

There were few creatures in the galaxy that were gifted with the natural ability to manipulate or even sense quintessence. Alteans, the species her druids came from, Balmerans, Olkari, and a few strange animals such as cosmic wolves were of the few creatures that possessed a varying aptitude for quintessence manipulation.

None of them came close to her understanding. She could feel the minute changes in the universe around her. That was why she felt it when a strong power suddenly awoke. The last time Haggar had come across something within this realm of raw power was 5,000 years ago.

She left her quarters, a place no one else dared go, and made her way to where her Emperor’s energy pulsed strongest. It was common to find him in the command room rather than the throne room. He was a powerful Emperor of conquest and war, he  didn’t hadn't the need to sit upon an elaborate throne, surrounded by useless filth. 

Haggar found her Emperor standing, gazing out the viewing glass at the artificial rings that slowly rotated the planet they had created themselves for the Galra. Keistungz was the pride of the Empire, more a giant base than a planet itself. It was heavily fortified with the most up to date technology. And though they lacked natural resources, it mattered not. Everything they needed could be obtained from any of the other planets they conquered.

“I feel a resurgence of power,” Haggar spoke as she approached her Emperor. She was the only one that need not bow to him, because she knew her place and where she stood.

“The Blue Lion has been found, and with a pilot,” Zarkon replied, watching as a fleet took to space.

“Yes, I have been told.” She kept her eyes on him, long white hair framing her face and spilling from beneath the hood of her robes. “This is different. I have not felt something like this since you defeated Alfor. This is not the feeling of a powerful child being born. This is something more.”

Zarkon was quiet for a moment. “Alfor’s daughter lives.” He sounded so sure of this that Haggar dared not question it. “How?”

She thought for a moment. Alteans had advanced technology so long ago, there were many possibilities. And if the Blue Lion was active once again…

“I know not,” she answered simply, not wanting to share theories and knowing he wouldn’t care less about them, “but it is time to reclaim what is rightfully ours.”

“Yes,” Zarkon said. “It is time to take back Voltron, and erase the last true pieces of that foul race from the universe forever.” He looked over his shoulder at her. “Contact my commanders. I want them all looking for them. Inform Sendak. If one lion has awoken, it may not be long before the others do as well.” He paused for a moment. “This information is classified. I do not want those who would meddle in detrimental ways to know.” 

“Yes, my Emperor.” Haggar knew the likelihood of a banished prince learning such a thing was low, but he was crafty and clever in ways that his father was not, so it was good to be weary. She bowed and left the room, her robes sweeping behind her.

…

Coran had been more than relieved to see that most of the systems in the castle were working just fine. It took them a bit to get up and running, of course, that was to be expected.

Much to his delight, the kitchen systems all seemed to be operational, so he filled a plate with a heaping portion of food goo and headed back to the command room where Allura had led those other strange aliens.

A frown made its way across his features as he walked through the eerily empty halls. When he agreed to fly the castle ship for a designated safe location, to go to sleep alongside Allura, he hadn’t imagined waking up 5,000 years later with everything gone. If he was honest, he had believed in Alfor. He believed that he would find a way to pull through in the end, perhaps reach a part of Zarkon that seemed to have died long ago.

Instead, everything was gone.

He didn’t want Allura to see his sadness or disappointment. He didn’t want to put that onto her too. So he straightened his shoulders and walked into the room with a friendly, albeit concerned, expression. “Princess, you must—where did those come from?” His eyes flickered to the four little creatures that were resting in her hands. He recognized them as Altean mice; long-lived creatures from their home that were decently intelligent, and made good starter pets for children.

He wasn’t the biggest fan of them, the little creatures always messed up his gardens, but Allura had a broad smile on her face as she stared at him, a happy, magenta flush across the bridge of her nose.

Anything that made her smile like that was fine by him.

There was a pink one that was positively bouncing in her hands, a friendly yellow one that waved at him, a tiny blue one that hid behind the big one, and a greenish one that was crossing his arms and glaring at Coran. That was…much wider a range of emotion than he’d ever seen these kinds of creatures have before.

“We’re not the last ones left from Altea,” Allura said happily as she held them close to her without injuring them. “They were in my pod. They must have slipped in as it was closed.”

Coran smiled and shook his head before letting go of the plate, allowing it to hover mid-air, earning a gasp from Hunk and Pidge. “Princess, you must eat. It’s been 5,000 years.”

She frowned at that and shook her head, keeping her attention on the mice. “I’m not hungry.”

“Man,” Lance spoke up, “5,000 years? That's like one thousand plus five."

Keith looked up at him, torn between confusion and concern. “That’s times five.”

“Whatever, dropout,” Lance snapped back, earning a harsh glare in response.

Pidge was staring at the hovering plate, apparently trying to see how it worked. Hunk looked at the food goo and said, "I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm starving."

“Yeah,” Pidge glanced at him before looking back at the plate, “but you've thrown up, like, five times."

“Good point,” he agreed, picking up some of the food goo to try it.

Shiro, meanwhile, was looking around the room in pure awe. "I can't believe your civilization created such advanced technology 5,000 years ago.” He met Coran’s gaze. “It must have been an incredible place."

“It was,” Coran agreed with a nod, looking from one person to the next. He kept a straight face, but between the two that were glaring at one another, the one who now looked sick from the food goo (which didn’t at all make sense), and the one that was ignoring everything else for the technology, he couldn’t help but wonder if the Blue Lion had made a mistake. Or perhaps  _ they _ were making a mistake in assuming that Blue had motives for bringing  _ everyone _ here.

The relative peace was interrupted as the alarms blared loudly, causing almost everyone to jump, Keith’s hand resting on what looked like some kind of knife attached to his belt. He got points for preparedness in Coran’s eyes.

“What is  _ that _ ?” Hunk cried out, hands over his ears.

Coran took a look at what the systems said, shock rushing through him. “There’s a Galra battleship that’s  _ very _ close to here.” It was very likely that it was going to find them, but it also led to another question.  _ Why _ would a Galra battleship suddenly appear close enough for the castle to locate?

“How did they find us?” Allura exclaimed, coming to the same conclusion that Coran had, that they were purposely coming to look for them.

“I bet it’s Keith’s fault,” Lance said without any hesitation, his arms crossed and a frown on his face.

Keith rolled his eyes, keeping his hand on his hip, no doubt ready to go for his weapon at a moment’s notice. "Say whatever you've got to say to make yourself feel better.” He let his hand drop to his side as he turned to glare at Lance. “After getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!"

Lance instantly reacted, lurching forward right into Keith’s space so that their faces were incredibly close to one another, hands curled into fists. “I’ll stick  _ you _ in a wormhole!”

Oh Ancients, were  _ these _ really going to be their new Paladins?

“Stow it, cadets!” Shiro broke in, prompting Lance to take a step back and throw his hands in the air as he glared at Keith. “This is no time to place blame. It's time to work as a team.” He looked around towards Allura, Keith instantly following suit, while Lance continued to glare at him. “How long before they arrive?"

“At their speed?” Coran started counting on his fingers to figure it out. “Oh, well, uh, carry the two... I'd say probably a couple of days?"

“Good,” Allura spoke up, her eyes narrowed in determination as she allowed the mice to climb up onto her shoulders. “By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon's empire!"

“Princess, there are five of these Lions. You said Lance and Blue would be able to help somehow?”

“Yes,” she nodded her head and stepped up onto a platform, closing her eyes. Pride rushed through Coran as he watched her do exactly as King Alfor had instructed her so long ago. Her eyes snapped back open, and an explosion of stars and constellations appeared around them.

They all gasped and voiced their awe.

“Lance.” Allura turned to him and motioned towards the seat to the far right that was lit up with Blue lights. “If you sit there and concentrate on Blue, she’ll be able to use you to connect to the castle and potentially be able to find the other lions for us.”

“How can she do that?” Pidge asked curiously, looking up at the stars in awe.

“The Lions of Voltron are connected in a way that’s unlike anything else in the universe,” Coran explained. “No matter the distance, they can feel one another, and these bonds spread over to their pilots—their Paladins. It’s likely why Blue brought all of you here. She knew that you were the right ones for the lions. We just have to figure out who she had in mind for each of you.”

“Okay then, so I just sit here?” Lance walked over to the spot in question and plopped down, looking at the screens in confusion. “Then what?”

“Close your eyes and open your mind. Keep it clear and call for Blue. If you’re her Paladin, she will come,” Allura explained. “Keep your hand on the console.”

“Shouldn’t be hard for him to keep a clear mind,” Pidge remarked sarcastically, earning a glare from Lance and a snort from Hunk.

“Right, okay. I can do this.” Lance placed his hand where he was supposed to and closed his eyes.

Everything was silent for a moment before Hunk said, “Is it working?” He tiptoed closer and leaned down. “How ‘bout now?”

“Ugh, you smell like puke!” Lance cried out, pushing him away before huffing and closing his eyes again. “Come on, Blue. It’s me, Lance. Your buddy. We bonded, remember?”

Keith looked up suddenly, staring towards Lance with narrowed eyes. A moment later, a faint blue glow surrounded him, slowly creeping down his hand and into the console.

Several spots on the hologram started glowing brightly, little pictures of the lions appearing.

“Did I do it?” Lance asked, sounding a little bit dazed.

“You did,” Coran said, setting a hand on top of his head.

“Weirdest thing ever.” Lance stumbled out of the seat, blinking his eyes. “Also I saw really odd things? Like, Shiro and a tornado? Hunk and mountains? Pidge and a forest?” He glanced at Keith. “And I’m pretty sure she wants to set you on fire.”

Before Keith could start arguing back, Pidge interrupted by saying, “The Black Lion looks like it's in the same location as the Blue Lion."

"Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage!" Coran cried out, unable to help himself. Maybe these strange people weren’t that bad.

"Very observant,” Allura said with a genuine smile. “That's because the Black Lion is in the Castle."

"To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon's hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle,” Coran explained to them. “It can only be accessed and freed if the other four are present with their Paladins.”

“As for what Lance saw…” Allura trailed off as she looked at the projections of the lions. “These ships cannot be piloted by just anyone. Lance, you were able to pilot Blue, but another will not respond to you. The Lions themselves choose their pilots. It’s a powerful, mystical bond that cannot be forced. Together, they form something greater than science can explain.”

“All of them look pretty far apart,” Hunk said, looking at the coordinates. “And that one just looks like it’s hanging out in the middle of nowhere.” He motioned to the floating image of the Red Lion. Sure enough, he had no coordinates around him. “How do we get to them? And can we do that in two days? Can the Blue Lion open a wormhole again?”

“There are very few things that can create wormholes,” Coran spoke up. “The Lions have that ability, but they need to gather the proper quintessence to do it, and it takes quite a while since they tend to use that for other things first. Alfor helped fuel each lion with enough quintessence to use one wormhole in the case of an emergency.”

“So, that’s a no,” Hunk clarified. “Right. Got it.”

“We don’t even know who would get what one,” Pidge pointed out.

“Actually, we do,” Allura interrupted, motioning towards Lance. “Blue told us.”

“She did?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Allura nodded her head again, sending the image of the Black Lion towards Shiro. “Each lion has the ability to use what ancients may have called an element. Lance saw Shiro and a tornado, and Black’s abilities include wind, sky, and potentially space if their…previous Paladin were to be believed.” Her smile fell for a moment before she shook her head and focused. “Black is the head of Voltron. They take a pilot who has the natural skills and potential to be a leader. It would make sense why Blue thinks Black will accept you.”

Shiro looked down at it with interest.

Allura then shifted the Green Lion’s hologram towards Pidge. “Green uses plants and thrives in forests. She’s always been quite inquisitive and intellectual herself.” Pidge smiled at that.

She motioned towards Blue’s hologram. “Blue is water, and of course—“

“Let me guess,” Lance interrupted with a grin. “She prefers the most handsome slash best pilot of the bunch?”

Coran almost laughed, because Allura looked like she was very tempted to toss him out of one of the airlocks. She quickly turned her attention towards the Yellow Lion, sending him towards Hunk. “Yellow’s element is earth. He’s very caring and kind, and needs someone whose heart must be mighty, and is willing to lift the team up and hold them together.” Hunk pointed out at himself, and she laughed and nodded.

A sad, nostalgic expression appeared on Allura’s face as she brought the hologram of the Red Lion closer to herself first. “The Red Lion is  _ terribly _ temperamental. He’s faster and more agile than the others, but also a bit…unstable? So to speak. It makes sense that his power is fire. His pilot will need to be someone who relies on instincts rather than just skill.” She pushed the image towards Keith. “I hope you’re ready for that, Keith.”

“What? This guy?” Lance asked, sounding almost offended, despite the fact that the Blue Lion chose him. Keith glared back at him.

Coran watched Allura carefully, knowing that handing the Red Lion off to someone else, so to speak, had to be difficult for her. She didn’t seem as put-out about it though. In fact, she regarded him with curiosity. He’d have to ask about that later.

“It appears that the Blue Lion is having a hard time finding the Red one.” She bit her lip. “I’m not quite sure  _ what’s _ going on with that. I’m sure Blue would know if Red was destroyed…which would be a feat in and of itself.”

“So, what’s wrong with Red?” Keith asked, his brow furrowing a bit as he stared at the hologram.

“Well, in theory, Red might be blocking the others from finding him, though I’m not sure why he would. Another possibility is that it actually something wrong with the castle.” She smiled sheepishly. “After 5,000 years, it... might need some work."

Coran jumped up, clapping his hands together. "Don't worry, we'll find it soon. They don't call me ‘The Coranic’ for nothing!” They were all staring at him, clearly confused, the poor beings. “It's because it sounds like ‘mechanic.’ Coranic, mechanic.” Maybe that was too complex for their species? “It's not—it doesn't sound  _ exactly _ like it. It's similar."

They were all staring at him like he was insane, but clearly they just didn’t appreciate his genius. The poor souls. Their species clearly  _ was  _ a bit behind when it came to intelligence.

Except, Allura was giving him a similar expression. She sighed and then smiled at everyone else. “Once we have them all, you’ll be able to form Voltron, the most powerful weapon and warrior ever known. I can open individual wormholes to allow you to locate Yellow and Green.”

“That’s awesome!” Hunk cried out, but then seemed to think about it, his brow pinching together. “Wait. Okay. So we fly the lions. Got that part. How do they turn into legs and stuff? Also, is this going to be a long trip? Because I’m only 17 and I didn’t get permission from my Tinā.”

Shiro quickly cut off his rambling. “Let’s focus on right now first. We may not have much time before the Galra get here.” He looked around quickly. “Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Keith, you stay here, and if you locate the Red Lion, go get it.” He clapped his prosthetic hand onto Keith’s shoulder.

“Can we even find Red if Blue is gone?” Keith asked, glancing over at Lance, who shrugged.

“It should be okay,” Allura answered, looking up at the star charts. “Now that Blue’s connected to the castle again, she can still transmit things back

Keith nodded his head, though he still looked a bit skeptical.

“Right.” Coran clapped his hands together. “I’ll ready a pod and load in the coordinates so you can reach the Green Lion.”

“I can only keep the wormholes open for so long,” Allura warned them. “It’s been quite some time since I’ve had to do this. Of course, the Yellow and Green Lions should be able to open wormholes themselves if you need it.”

Coran practically bounced on his feet. “The good news is that according to my readings, both planets are relatively peaceful. So, if you do get stuck, they could be relaxing places to live out the rest of your lives. Enjoy the trip!"

Despite protests, everyone got on their way quickly enough, leaving the castle quiet again.

Coran’s smile fell. He had only just met them, and he desperately hoped that they’d be okay. Not just because he hoped that they could bring all the lions back to them, but because he was worried about  _ them _ .

For now though, there was a lot of work left to be done.

…

If someone had told Keith that he would end up inside of an alien castle at some point in his life, he probably would have laughed in their faces and said that he wished that was the case.

He’d always believed in life beyond their own world. How could he not when there were so many stars in the sky, and people were already going to other planets in their solar system? Then there were so many other stars out there (and each star could be a sun to planets)?

His father used to take him outside to the roof of their house and tell him about the constellations and about how there were probably billions of others out there staring up at the sky wondering if there was life out there too, not knowing that they were out there.

A pang of longing rushed through Keith. He missed his father a lot. He was what inspired Keith’s interest in space and space travel, and when Keith became interested in something, he learned everything he possibly could about it. He wondered what his old man would have said about this situation.

In a lot of the old movies, the aliens that visited Earth were incredibly advanced, and they had seen that once in the massive ship that chased them, as well as an apparently 5000 year old sentient, robotic lion. This castle was absolutely amazing. He thought the Garrison had some advanced tech, but it was nothing compared to this.

A shiver ran down his spine at the thought of what these people could have done if their home wasn’t destroyed and their race all but exterminated. Keith pushed that thought away, because it didn’t matter. This was all that was left of these people and their home.

He couldn’t help but admire the chairs that were all laid out, each one with a different colour scheme. He shifted closer to the red one, sitting to the immediate right of where Allura was standing, looking at it with concentrated interest.

“Your friends will be alright,” Allura assured him, startling him a bit. “I’m sure of it.”

Keith looked back at her, and realized that she must have taken his concentration and silence as worry. “Oh, uh…they’re not exactly…I don’t really know them.” Keith couldn’t remember the last time he actually had a friend. Maybe when he was in the lower grades, before his father passed. For a while, he bounced around from home to home, ending up at the youth home over and over again until everyone just decided he was better off there.

In the youth home, you didn’t make friends. You made allies that you never got too close too. Just in case.

Of course, there was one exception. “Well, I know Shiro really well.” The one person that wouldn’t let him push them away, no matter how much he acted out, or how many times Adam whispered to him (at first) that maybe he wasn’t doing the right thing.

A small groan broke Keith out of his thoughts again, and he glanced towards Allura just in time to see her sway and then start to fall, the wormholes that had been glowing in the sky vanishing. He shot forward, managing to grab her before she could topple right off of the platform she was standing on. “Are you okay? Do you need me to get Coran?” That could take a while. This place was huge, and he had no idea where the other man went.

Allura shook her head, though she was leaning heavily on him with her forehead resting on his shoulder, gripping the front of his jacket tightly. Keith didn’t say anything, just held her upright as the mice (that he forgot about) scurried around them, squeaking with alarm.

She took a few deep breaths then said, “I apologize. Wormholes are difficult to maintain at times.”

“Sleeping for 5,000 years can’t help any,” Keith blurted out. Good  _ god _ , what was wrong with him? Reminding the poor girl of her bad situation was a  _ fantastic _ idea, Kogane.

Luckily, she didn’t seem to be offended. A breathless laugh escaped her lips as she shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. I think I’d like to sit for a moment.” She nodded towards the platform. “Here is fine.”

Keith helped her sit down and couldn’t help but notice a few interesting things about her. When he held her hand for a moment, his fingers brushed one way and it seemed perfectly smooth, but going the other felt rough, almost like sandpaper. He was pretty sure that he read something about sharkskin being like that. It was actually really cool. Not to mention her hair looked almost metallic up close. Like someone used a subtle pearlescent dye on her hair. 

“Perhaps Coran was right,” Allura said after a moment. “I probably should have eaten.”

“Did you want me to get you something?” Keith asked from where he hovered around her almost nervously. The last thing he needed was for an alien princess to pass out when he was alone with her.

“No, not yet. I’d like to get all my cycles back in order as soon as possible, and now isn’t time to eat. Eating and sleeping at the right times are important for Alteans.” She motioned to the spot beside her, indicating that he should sit.

Keith didn’t really know how to act around any kind of royalty, so he sat with his posture perfectly straight.

Allura raised an eyebrow, looking almost amused. “You’re quite tense, aren’t you? I must admit, it would be very amusing to watch you try and wrangle the food goo.” The mice clambered up onto her lap, and she regarded them with a smile. “They seem very entertained by the idea as well.”

Did she…understand the mice? “What?”

She nodded towards them. “Apparently I can communicate with them telepathically. It’s quite interesting.

“Ah is that…something all Alteans could do? Or is that just what all Altean mice are like?”

Allura laughed, and he took that as a win. “No, not at all. Alteans have a natural connection to quintessence, but it doesn’t give us the ability to do anything quite like that. I can only guess that it came from sharing a pod for…5,000 years.” Her voice choked up slightly as she said the number herself.

Keith wasn’t quite sure what to do, because anything he said would probably make it worse. Then the mice started squeaking, waving and motioning to one another.

“Oh!” Allura’s eyes went wide with delight before she looked up at Keith. “Apparently they all have names!”

“They told you that?” Keith asked. There were some nights where he was just staring up at the stars, and he let his thoughts stray to the most random things. One time, it had been about if animals referred to themselves and others as specific things, and when they were adopted, if people gave them names they didn’t like.

“Yes.” She pointed at the large one with mostly yellow fur. “This is Platt.” Platt waved at Keith cheerfully. “This is Chulatt.” The little blue one hid behind Platt and regarded Keith timidly. “This is Plachu.” She motioned to the skinny one with greenish fur, who crossed his arms. Keith felt like he was mocking him. “And this is Chuchule. Poor thing is the only girl of the bunch.” The pink one bounced excitedly.

The mice slid down onto the floor, doing little acrobatic tricks. They really were insanely intelligent, weren’t they? If the pods did that to them, he wondered if there were any side effects for Allura or Coran. Surely when they were designed, the Alteans weren’t thinking about  _ actually _ putting someone in there for that long.

After a little while of watching them, Keith realized that Allura was staring at him with furrowed eyebrows and curious eyes, like she was trying to read him. Keith was used to those kind of stares, he had gotten them nearly all his life.

He turned to her and raised a questioning eyebrow. “What?” Maybe she was just as curious about humans as he was of Alteans.

Instead of being flushed or embarrassed about being caught staring, she narrowed her eyes and leaned in closer. “You’re all quite curious. You look very much like Alteans, with a few obvious differences.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Our ugly ears.”

She smiled at that. “They’re quite strange.” She shifted even closer to him, and he was almost tempted to lean away from her. “And no markings or anything like that. They’re said to be markings passed down to us from when the Ancients blessed Alteans with the ability to manipulate quintessence. Your species must not have experienced such a thing.” She tilted her head slightly. “Both you and Lance have the smoothest skin. It’s quite odd. Surely it must be easy to injure?”

“I mean, yeah? We get bruises and cuts and stuff. Don’t you?” He regarded her curiously. 

“Oh, yes, but that is rare. I’ll have Coran double check our healing pods to make sure that they’re set to work for all of you, should we need them. The castle scanned you when you entered, did it not?”

Keith nodded his head, taking all of that in. Healing pods? As in something that they could get inside that would heal them? Medicine had come a long way on Earth, but they were nowhere near close to something like that. 

Something like that could potentially save so many lives. Maybe those that had life-long diseases that were slowly eating away at them. Maybe even those who suffered through severe burns and smoke inhalation.

His chest burned at the thought of that, fingers gripping the dark fabric of his jeans as he swore that he could feel the heat of flames creeping up his arms. No, no, he didn’t want to think about that.

Except, it made him think of something else. Something they had talked about earlier. “Do you think that the Red Lion won’t tell us where she is because she doesn’t want me?” Yeah, he was excited about the idea of flying one of the lions ever since he saw Lance doing it, and the thought of going with the most agile flyer of the bunch? It was amazing.

But this lion apparently used  _ fire _ , and Keith wasn’t exactly…great with that.

Allura blinked at the question, clearly taken back. “Why would you think that?”

He didn’t want to explain his past to her. It was something he had only talked to Shiro about after he woke up screaming from a nightmare, falling into a panic attack. Instead, he said, “For months I  _ felt _ the Blue Lion. Now she can’t even find the Red one. Maybe she doesn’t want me.”

“Really?” Allura perked up slightly, keeping her attention on him despite the fact that the mice were using her dress to climb back up onto her. “What was that like?”

“Uh, like…there was something reaching out for me? More like an awareness, and sometimes just this electric feel of energy? That doesn’t make sense, does it?”

“It does, actually,” she assured him. “That sounds almost like a…more minimalistic version of how I feel quintessence. Should I try, I can see it, but that requires a bit of focus.”

“Quin—what?” She brought that up before, hadn’t she?

She laughed again. “Quintessence is an energy within all living things–from animals, to plants, to planets themselves, and sometimes it’s just there, even in the vastness of space. It’s essentially life. Few have evolved to be aware of it, but Alteans were fortunate. Most of us are aware of it and can use it in a limited sense. Some, like myself, can use it in greater ways, such as creating wormholes with the right technology. Oh! I wonder if, despite your lack of markings, your species has a natural aptitude for it at as well?”

Keith shrugged. “Not that I know. Maybe? No one else was able to feel it though. Just me.”

She pursed her lips in thought. “Well, that’s worth looking into.” She turned her attention towards the mice again, petting them gently. “For what it’s worth, I’m not at all surprised that Blue thinks you’re a good match for Red. Your quintessence is fiery and strong. I don’t think any of the others could have handled Red as they are now. He was always a stubborn thing. Sometimes didn’t even listen to father.”

He started with surprise. “Your  _ father _ flew the Red Lion?” Oh god. Keith had just met her, but it was super obvious to him that she adored her father, and she didn’t really seem to be reacting to the loss at all, most likely in the denial stage of grief. Keith got that. He understood. So to know that he was going to pilot her father’s lion was almost gut-wrenching.

“He did,” she admitted with a sad smile.

“I’m sorry,” Keith blurted out. “About him. And everything else.” Smooth Kogane. Smooth.

Allura kept her eyes on the mice. “There’s no need for you to apologize. It’s not like you did anything.” She looked up at him with a smile. “Besides, all of you coming here woke us up. It gave us the chance to fight back. A chance at life. So thank you.”

He felt more saddened than anything by her response, but he wasn’t going to force her to face any issues she might have at the moment. He wasn’t that kind of person. “You’re welcome?”

She nodded and started to stand, stumbling a little bit. Keith was quick to stand beside her, keeping her upright. She sighed. “Perhaps I should take you up on the offer to get food. Would it be too much to ask for a bit of help getting to the kitchen?” She smiled sheepishly. “I won’t hear the end of it from Coran otherwise.”

He snorted. “Sure thing, Princess.” Keith liked to think that he was a good judge of character, and he had a good feeling about the Princess.

They waited until the mice had climbed up his legs and torso to sit on his shoulders before heading out of the room, Allura telling him where to go.

Neither one of them noticed the little hologram of the Red Lion beep, a set of rapidly changing coordinates appearing alongside it.

…

Hunk had no idea which way was up and which way was down anymore. Lance was screaming as the Blue Lion spiraled, and all he could do was shout ‘no’ over and over again. He was a bit surprised that his feet stayed on the floor of the Blue Lion at all, but maybe it was like how you could spin a bucket really fast and the water didn’t fall out at the apex of the spin or something like that.

Oh god, thinking about it made Hunk want to  _ hurl _ .

Blue straightened out, but that didn’t really matter. The guns on the big Galra ship had been scary, but the two fighters on their tail could  _ follow _ them through the clouds.

Lance got the lion to spin and evade the missiles that were coming towards them, but one still managed to hit. He cried out in surprise and accidentally jerked the controls forward, causing Blue to plummet to the ground.

“What are you doing?” Hunk screamed as the yellow-ish cliffs rose up around them as they got closer and closer to the ground. “And I thought Coran said these planets were peaceful?!”

High pitched screams finally stopping, Lance managed to say, “Maybe ‘peaceful’ means something else in Altean!” At the last second, he yanked the controls back and the thrusters on Blue’s paws ignited, stabilizing them to stop them from crashing.

Blue streaked forward through the canyons, over what looked like an open-pit mine. Those were actually kind of hard to come by on Earth now, since there were very strict environmental laws now after a couple of disasters and a war that followed. Hunk was so,  _ so _ glad he missed all of that nonsense in world history.

Holding onto the back of Lance’s chair, he brought out the tracker that Coran had given him. A hologram of the planet popped up in front of him. "According to the coordinates, we're right on top of the Yellow Lion.” He looked up, his heart sinking and his stomach twisting as he realized that the coordinates perfectly matched where the Galra were mining. “It's below there, where they're mining for the ore. They don't even know the Lion is there.” An image popped up of a cave opening, similar to how they found Blue. “Or maybe they just got here and they're digging for the Lion? What do you think, Lance?"

He was doing that rambling thing again, wasn’t he? Hunk couldn’t help it when he did that. It was either he rambled like crazy and got all of his thoughts and feelings out, or he’d end up letting his anxiety eat him from the inside-out.

“Who cares?” Lance yelled, looking back at him over his shoulder. “Just go get it!” He looked forward. “I’m dropping you down there.”

“Me? Down there?” Hunk was going to  _ puke _ at the thought. “No. No, no, did I mention no?”

“Yes,” Lance all but hissed at him. “I’ll cover you.” He dove right into the mine, landing Blue on the ground. The lion ran across the surface, crushing the guns and anyone that got in her way.

“What if the Yellow Lion doesn't work? Wh-What if I—What if I can't get in the mine? What if I start crying?” His eyes were already burning a bit. “It's too late! I'm already crying! Would you listen to me for  _ once _ ?”

“Sorry,” Lance said without looking back at him. “No time for questions.” He pressed a button, and the next thing Hunk knew, he was falling.

Hunk screamed as he slid down and down and then Blue’s mouth opened and he was falling and rolling, the dirt scraping against his arms and legs. God, he was going to be bruised for a year, what the  _ hell _ Lance? His roll stopped when he hit a large rock, causing him to groan. Did he have internal bleeding? If he did this was absolutely Lance’s fault! Who  _ does _ that to their friend?

He looked behind him in time to see Blue block the entrance to the mine, keep the fire off of him and then leading most of them off.

None of the Galra seemed to notice him, too focused on the Blue Lion, and he was already here, so he might as well try to look for it.

Anger started to bubble up in him as he got to what looked like a lift. “Sure, just drop me off in an alien planet. Do we know if the atmosphere is breathable? What? It doesn’t matter? Everyone just listens to Lance anyway? Sure, of course.” He pried open the controls, quickly taking it all in. It was simple and logical, exactly like something he’d make himself. That was a relief. “It's only occupied by mean aliens that want to kill me, but whatever.” He got the end of two wires, tapping them against one another and causing them to spark. “Just ignore them and go connect with a big, yellow, mechanical cat. Easy-peasy. Yeah. That all makes a ton of sense to me." The inside of the lift started glowing purple—he was getting the feeling that the Galra had a specific aesthetic going on—the machine whirred to life around him.

He went lower and lower into the cave, and his worries about the Galra  _ knowing _ the Yellow Lion was there were proven true. There was a very large cave drawing of it there. At least he knew that he was in the right place.

How did this go again? Lance and Keith had been talking about hearing growling, probably from Blue, and then the ground underneath Lance had lit up and  _ boom _ , they found themselves in the water in Blue’s cave.

When the lift stopped, Hunk hurried out of it and looked around the room. What was he  _ doing _ here? Was he actually going to find a big lion and fly it around? He was no pilot! He got sick all the time!

Still, if these things were that bad, he didn’t want them getting back to his parents. To his aunt, uncle, and cousins. Just the thought of it made him want to cry. “Okay,” he breathed out, calming himself down. “I'm in a giant hole. Now what, Hunk?" He loved geology and knew a ton about minerals and the elements that created their world. This had a similar feel to some of the things he knew was on Earth, that wasn’t surprising in and of itself, but it was still quite different.

He walked forward down the tunnel, running his hand along the wall. He hoped that the lion was okay, and that those monsters didn’t have it already. That would be really bad.

Hunk flinched as the wall beside him suddenly lit up. He stared at the markings, and realized that it looked exactly like the one that had appeared under Lance. Not only that, but it kind of reminded him of the wormholes they went through.

“Oh,” he breathed out, eyes going wide. That was  _ exactly _ what it was? Wasn’t it? In a way. “I can take a hint.” He steeled himself, repeating that he had to do this over and over again. Then he reached out and touched the wall, and a vibrant yellow light, not even noticing the shaking of the cave around him.

Hunk squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself to fall or something like that. It didn’t happen though. His feet stayed solid on the ground.

Thinking that something had gone wrong and maybe he’d have to do something crazy like hotwire that drill he saw and plough through the rock wall, Hunk opened his eyes.

A gasp escaped his lips as he found himself staring up at a glowing yellow dome, the Yellow Lion staring down at him from behind it.

“Woah,” he breathed out as he slowly approached it. “Hi there. I’m Hunk. It’s really—wow—it’s really nice to meet you.” He placed his hand on the force field. “I hope those Galra haven’t been freaking you out with all of the digging around you. I—uh—my friend Lance is outside with the Blue Lion fighting some of them until I found you.”

The lion’s eyes were glowing brightly as the barrier vanished, and he leaned down, opening his mouth for Hunk to enter.

He quickly climbed inside (it was so much better than being in a cave and exposed to the Galra), and as he did, he felt like something warm, strong, and protective was wrapping around him. Only when he was seated inside of the cockpit did he ask, “Is that you?” He felt the confirmation, and couldn’t help but smile. He liked the feel of the Yellow Lion. He was friendly, steady, and strong.

“Alright,” Hunk said, “now how do we get out of here?” Up seemed like a good enough place to go. He pressed forward on the controls, and Yellow leapt up, easily tunneling through the earth that was in their way.

This felt so different than with Blue. Maybe it was because he was sitting, but Yellow felt more stable and less like he was going to flip end over end.

Yellow growled as they got closer to the surface, causing him to frown. “Blue’s in danger?” Affirmation. “Alright, let’s help them out!”

They burst out of the ground just in time to see a pair of missiles heading towards them. Well, towards Blue, but they got in the way.

The missiles did absolutely  _ nothing _ to Yellow’s strong armour. Hunk barely felt the impact from them. A huge grin spread across his face as he whooped and urged the lion forward. Yellow leapt up soaring above the Galra fighters, and promptly belly-flopped onto them.

A little screen popped up in front of him, and with some prompting from Yellow, he pressed the button and started talking. “You okay, Lance?” The lion insisted that this was how they could communicate between lions.

“Hunk!” Lance burst out, his voice wavering. "Hunk! I thought you were dead! You jumped in front of those shots to save my life!"

He had, hadn’t he? Even after Lance had brutally tossed him out of his lion earlier. Good thing Hunk wasn’t the type to hold a grudge. He let go of things like this. Well, unless he needed to use it later on for something. Instead, he said, “This guy’s a little slow, but his armour is amazing! It can take a beating! Oh!” A warning screen popped up in front of him. “Looks like there are more of them on their way. We gotta get out of here!”

“There’s a problem,” Lance replied as Blue was finally able to get up. “The wormhole closed a while ago. I dunno what happened to it.” He paused. “I bet it was Keith’s fault.”

“I’m sure,” Hunk replied dryly. Yellow whispered to him, and he nodded. “We’ve still got our emergency one, we can use that.”

“Let’s get out of here!”

The two lions launched up towards the sky. Hunk felt a rush of energy, and a moment later, a wormhole the same as the one Blue brought them through appeared. He was kind of sad that it wasn’t yellow, but oh well, he’d take it. Anything to get out of there and away from the Galra.

…

Going through the wormhole a second time wasn’t nearly as harrowing. Maybe it was because someone who knew what they were doing made it, or maybe it was because Shiro was flying the Altean pod, but it was pretty much smooth sailing.

Pidge braced herself for anything when they reached the other end. Surely Coran’s information couldn’t be  _ that _ up to date, even if the castle apparently updated by recording transmissions and chatter. There had to be a range and limit to that, and from the star charts, the Green Lion was  _ very _ far from Arus, the planet the castle was on.

There were no blasting canons or anything like that. Instead, everything was completely calm. “Oh, wow,” she breathed out as they flew towards the planet.

It was blue and green like Earth, and even Arus, but it was strangely different. Where the atmospheres on those two appeared to be clear, there was a distinct blue layer to the atmosphere that surrounded a bumpy, primarily green terrain.

“Alright,” Shiro spoke up, pressing the buttons Coran indicated. Readings popped up on the screen, but neither one of them could read it. So much for them figuring out if the atmosphere on the planet was breathable or not. “I don’t know what I expected.”

“Well, I mean, we’re all speaking the same language,” Pidge pointed out, her nose scrunching. “What’s up with that? No way we should be understanding them or they should be understanding us.”

“Given how advanced their technology is, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if there was some kind of universal translators, or something like that,” Shiro pointed out. “The computer voice when we were scanned was in English too.”

That was an interesting thought, but where would the sample of English have come from in the first place? From them maybe? However that worked. It was confusing.

Instead, she took out the little device that Coran had given her that had the specific coordinates for the Green Lion. “It looks like it’s close to the equator.”

Shiro glanced down at the device and nodded his head without questioning her at all. That was kind of nice.

He landed the pod easily, which was pretty impressive, considering it was technology he never dealt with before. No wonder her father insisted that Shiro be the pilot to Kerberos. It also made sense why Matt was basically fanboying over him to the point where, if he didn’t make goo-goo eyes at pretty girls, she would have sworn that he liked him.

“Moment of truth?” she asked, prepared to get out of the pod.

“The vegetation here  _ looks _ very similar to Earth’s, so I  _ should _ be okay. Get ready to get back in if it’s not,” Shiro ordered, his voice stern and serious. All Pidge could do was nod.

She almost felt like throwing up as the pod opened, but then nothing happened. Her lungs didn’t burn, and she didn’t gasp for air, or collapse. It felt even fresher than at home, which she normally didn’t enjoy, because, ew, being outside. No thanks.

“Looks like it’s safe,” Shiro said as he got up, stretching out his long limbs. She climbed after him, arms wind-milling as she stumbled out of the pod. He caught her with a laugh. “Alright, here’s what we’ll do. It’s your lion, so you lead the way. Focus on the coordinates on that.” He motioned towards the device in her hands. “I’ll keep an eye out for anything, alright?”

A lump formed in her throat, but Pidge nodded her head. Her eyes scanned the coordinates for a moment before saying, “This way.” It was too bad they couldn’t land the pod any closer, but all the foliage was  _ so _ thick and dense, it would have been impossible.

Nerves crept through her body as Pidge led the way, eyes flicking up from the readings every once and a while to make sure that she wasn’t going to trip over anything, though she already trusted Shiro to help her out.

When she first joined the Garrison under a fake alias  that her mother helped  her create, Katie Holt never imagined that she’d end up in a galaxy far, far away. She wasn’t afraid of that though. In fact, she was almost excited. It meant that she was a step closer to finding Matt. To finding her dad. She knew that he’d want her to focus on Matt first though.

The thought that  _ she _ was going to be a pilot was a wild one. Sure, she’d been an okay communication’s officer, and she was best at robotics and programming so, ultimately she wanted to help design stuff at the Garrison, but a part of her had always wanted to fly too. 

Now not only was she getting the chance to fly, but she was getting the chance to fly a one-of-a-kind (because all five lions were unique) alien spacecraft! If only the brats she went to school with could see her now.

Her thoughts raced until she heard the sound of gentle waves lapping against a shore. Shiro helped move a few particularly big trees out of the way, revealing an almost spring-green lake. It should have thrown her off, but it really didn’t

She could  _ absolutely _ see why the Green Lion would have hid on this world.

Pidge glanced at the readings one more time before looking around. That was when she saw the strangest thing ever.

There was a very convenient canoe sitting a little way down the beach. Convenient, because she was pretty sure that they had to cross the water to get to the Green Lion.

“Look.” She pointed it out to Shiro.

He hummed in acknowledgement, and they both approached it almost warily. The bow of the canoe had a lion head carved into it, which, again, was kind of suspicious. Then again, if the lions were sent away 5,000 years ago, that meant that it was likely close to that period of time when Blue got to Earth, and the stories of her had survived to modern day through the oral storytelling of the First Nations’ People. Something on this planet carving a lion head in honour of the one there wouldn’t be the strangest thing she ever heard of.

Pidge and Shiro were both so busy analyzing the canoe that they didn’t hear slow, quiet footsteps creeping up on then until a strange, crackling squeak reached their ears.

They both looked up at the same time, startled screams escaping them both. Pidge actually ended up  _ scaling _ Shiro, holding onto him tightly as he flinched back away from the strange creature.

Heart feeling like it was about to leap out of her throat, Pidge tried to calm herself down. The creature simply stared at them, tilting its head. Okay, that wasn’t bad. “It’s just a…” She didn’t quite know what to call it, but it kind of reminded her of a sloth.

She hopped off of Shiro’s back at the creature walked away from them, heading towards the canoe. It made another little noise as it faced them again, waving them towards the canoe.

“I think he wants us to go in his canoe,” Pidge realized, feeling uneasy about the entire thing.

“Then I guess we should go.” She looked up at Shiro with wide eyes. He smiled at her and shrugged. "I've been locked up by aliens for a year.” He walked ahead of her, heading towards the canoe. “This is nothing."

Pidge blinked a few times before following him. Okay, that was a  _ very _ fair point.

They climbed into the surprisingly sturdy canoe, and the creature crooned at them again before pushing off.

The only thing that Pidge could actually do was stare in awe at the creatures that peeked out at them from the forest. There were some that kind of looked like six-legged bunnies that climbed trees, and they were  _ adorable _ . It made her miss Bae Bae even more than normal.

Maybe these little creatures sensed that they were friendly, because they gathered around the edge of the shore and up along the top of the cave they were heading to. Pidge couldn’t stop herself from giggling happily, they were just too cute.

Then her eyes settled on a carving that distinctly showed a lion, kind of like the one that had been in the cave they found the Blue Lion in.

Her breath caught in her throat as excitement welled up within her. Honestly, a part of her had been expecting trouble, and this was a very pleasant surprise. It made her think of everyone else and what they were doing. Keith was lucky, he got to spend some one-on-one time with the Alteans. Hunk and Lance though…

“I wonder if Hunk and Lance are having as good a time as us."

Shiro chuckled from behind her. “I’m sure the two of them are fine. Maybe getting a little airsick at worst.”

“Poor Hunk,” she sighed and shook her head. “Lance is such a rough flyer.”

“He’s not bad,” Shiro said with a small shrug and a smile. “Especially for the first time in an alien ship. He’ll get the hang of it. You all will.”

“I hope so,” Pidge replied. If she could do this, then maybe, just maybe, she’d get the chance to find her family.

The cave seemed to go on forever, though Pidge was surprised to see a light at the end of the tunnel, literally. She blinked, eyes adjusting to the light again confused when she realized that they were back out in the open again.

Something gnawed at Pidge’s stomach. She couldn’t even really enjoy the strange insects that were floating around, too lost in her thoughts. What if the Green Lion was supposed to be in that cave and it rejected her? They had all been teleported to Blue.

She bit her lip her thoughts getting the best of her, and started to ramble. "I know the Princess said that this is supposed to be my Lion, but what if she's wrong? I mean, she's probably not wrong. She's a princess, but I'm not a pilot, even though I've always wanted to be a pilot. I mean, I read all the fighter manuals, but never got to fly the simulator. But, hey, I can't be all that worse than Lance. He crashed all the time. But what if I get in there and it doesn't respond? What if I get in there and it's too big and my feet don't touch the pedals?” Then a horrible thought hit her. “What if there aren't even pedals?!"

Oh  _ god _ , this was going to be an absolute disaster!

“You’re rambling,” Shiro spoke up, and though Pidge wasn’t looking at him, she could already tell from his voice alone that he was amused. “Listen, our commander on the Kerberos Mission is the smartest man I ever met, and he always said, 'If you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great.'"

Pidge gasped at the words, blinking her eyes rapidly because she wasn’t tearing up at all. No siree. It didn’t matter that she could actually  _ hear _ her father saying that exact thing. She smiled warmly, taking comfort in that as they went around the riverbend.

Then she saw it.

Straightening up, Pidge gasped as she stared at a large pyramid. It was rundown and covered in vines, but the structure reminded her of Mayan temples on Earth.

Of course, why would the Green Lion, the one that has powers over the plants and forest, hide underground?

The canoe ran ashore, and Pidge eagerly stumbled out of it, gaping up at the pyramid in awe. Their guide didn’t get out of the canoe with them, simply crooning and waving to them before settling sail again. At first, she was confused, but then realized that, in theory, they weren’t going to need a ride back.

They approached the pyramid, and like the tunnel on the river, there was a carving of a lion. She breathed in deeply, not feeling anything in the way Keith described, but that was fine. Lance hadn’t either when they were close to Blue.

She stopped at the tall staircase, staring at them with a renewed nervousness.

“Go,” Shiro said suddenly. She looked back at him, only to see him smiling at her. “Be great.”

Excitement erupted in her, and Pidge couldn’t help but smile. With adrenaline on her side, she ran up the steep staircase, scaling over the ridiculously thick vines that were there. She could do this. This was a step towards saving her family.

She struggled a little bit with the last couple vines. She wasn’t exactly  _ great _ at climbing, and that had been a lot of work. She groaned and tugged herself up, practically flopping onto the top of the vines. Pidge took a few deep breaths, and then looked up.

Confusion rushed over her as she looked around. She was at the very top of the vines, and thought that perhaps the Green Lion was hiding behind them, but she couldn’t see any sign of it anywhere around her.

That’s when she heard it. A soft, rumbling growl that came from below her. Looking down at the gaps in the vines, a yellow eye lit up brightly, causing Pidge to smile and jump down, her feet landing solid on the muzzle of the Green Lion. Despite the fact that she was on the lion’s nose, she could tell that she was looking at her.

“Hi girl,” Pidge whispered. “I’m Pidge. Well, Katie, but I like Pidge more now. I guess I’m going to be your pilot, if you don’t mind?”

The lion rumbled again, opening her mouth. Pidge grinned and slid down, clambering inside of the lion and running to where she knew the cockpit was, excitement thrumming through her.

As she sat down, she realized something. That wasn’t just  _ her _ excitement. It was coming from the lion herself. Looks like Lance wasn’t entirely insane.

“Alright girl,” Pidge said as the seat shifted forward. “Let’s get out of here and go get Shiro!” She pressed the controls forward, and Green let out a roar as she burst through the vines.

…

Lance stretched out his arms, grimacing a bit. He wished they had some kind of specialized flight suits or something, because he was going to bruise like it was no one’s business. He and Hunk walked down the quiet metal halls of the castle, heading towards the bridge.

They were about half way there when he caught sight of two figures a little ways ahead of them. He perked up a bit and called out, “Pidge! Shiro!” 

They both stopped walking and turned to face them. From the grin on Pidge’s face, Lance knew that he had found the Green Lion. Shiro, on the other hand, frowned as he took in the sight of them. “Are you two alright?”

“That was a  _ nightmare _ ,” Lance replied while rubbing his back. “I almost puked out there! I felt like Hunk!” He could still feel a bit of the panic that he felt when he thought Hunk was gone. God, he didn’t want to feel that kind of worry or fear ever again, especially since he was the one that made Hunk go alone. Not that there was really anything else he could have done.

He came up with the best plan that he could, given the situation, but Lance still felt like he hadn’t done enough.

They got the Yellow Lion though. That was their mission, and they did it. That was what mattered. Not his  _ feelings _ .

God, he wished he could talk to his mother. He’d even take his sister right now.

“Think how I felt,” Hunk said, raising an eyebrow. God, he was covered in scrapes too from when Lance tossed him out of Blue. “I  _ am _ Hunk.”

Pidge looked from one to the other for a moment before saying, “Yeah, we had a tough time too.” He glanced at Shiro, who grinned back at him. Lance wasn’t entirely sure that he believed him. They both seemed perfectly fine.

The four of them continued the rest of the way to the bridge, and Lance instantly felt his heart race a little bit at the thought of seeing Princess Allura again. She wasn’t just beautiful, she was absolutely stunning! And a princess to boot! And—and—well, Lance didn’t actually know anything about her, but people who looked like that  _ had _ to be nice, right?

Lance wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting to see when they got back on the bridge. Perhaps Allura standing on her platform, waiting to greet them with a warm smile, while Keith sulked somewhere to the side.

That wasn’t what they found though. Allura was sitting on the edge of the platform, knees pulled close to her, head bowed, fingers tugging on her gorgeous white hair. Keith was sitting right beside her, looking slightly alarmed, but also pretty annoyed. Coran wasn’t far behind the two of them.

“What did you do?” Lance burst out, unable to help himself. Something about seeing Keith so close to Allura really irked him, though he couldn’t quite explain why. Surely if she was upset, someone trying to comfort her was a good thing. He just…didn’t want Keith near her or vice versa.

Wait, what?

Dark grey eyes focused on him as Keith’s brow furrowed. He opened his mouth to reply, but Shiro stepped in between the two of them and asked, “Did something happen?”

“We found the Red Lion,” Keith answered, his voice low and steady. It made something twist inside of Lance. God, he sounded angry.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Hunk asked curiously.

“It is most certainly  _ not _ !” Allura burst out, looking up at them all suddenly. She wasn’t upset or in tears, she looked  _ furious _ .

“There’s good news and bad news,” Coran spoke up, which, yeah, that made sense. Why else would she be so  _ angry _ ? “The good news is that the Red Lion’s nearby. The bad news is, it's on board that Galra ship now orbiting Arus. But wait, good news again. We're Arus!"

“It’s here  _ already _ ?” Shiro asked, a bit of panic seeping into his voice.

“What happened to a couple of  _ days _ ?” Pidge added.

“Yes.” Coran nodded his head, staring at them sheepishly. “I guess my calculations were a bit off. Finger counting—it’s more of an art than a science.”

“How  _ dare _ the Galra take the Red Lion!” Allura stood up, starting to pace around furiously. “Zarkon did this. I know he did! When I get my hands on him…” Her hands clenched into fists, and wow she looked personally ready to throw down with this 5000-year-old dictator. Lance didn’t know if that was hot or terrifying. Both? Both was good.

“It’s likely that the ship came here specifically to look for us,” Coran admitted. “If it was just any other ship passing by, and they happened to get a reading on the large output of quintessence, I could understand them stopping to check it out. The fact that the Red Lion’s there means something else altogether.”

“Zarkon would never trust just anyone with a Lion of Voltron if he got his hands on one,” Allura said, looking up at them all. “Whoever is on that ship is  _ dangerous _ .”

Lance’s stomach twisted unpleasantly at that. The Galra they saw so far had been bad enough, but apparently they weren’t even the most dangerous ones around? The thought made him sick.

What appeared to be windows around the castle suddenly started going on the fritz, like those really old televisions that Luis used to try to fix up when they were younger. A screen appeared, showing a strange creature with large ears, a single yellow eye, and what looked like an orange monocle on the other one. In theory, that should have been hilarious, but it wasn’t at all. In fact, just seeing him sent shivers up Lance’s spine.

Was  _ that _ a Galra? He hadn’t been able to tell what they looked like under all their armour.

"Princess Allura,” the Galra spoke calmly, his deep voice instantly becoming one of the most frightening things that Lance had ever heard. “This is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the Lions of Voltron. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet."

“Sendak,” Allura breathed out, her eyes wide. “How…that’s  _ impossible _ .” A frustrated growl escaped her lips as she suddenly looked to Coran. “Even if the average Galra lifespan increased over the past 5,000 years,  _ he _ should not be alive  _ either _ . The oldest known Galra was 800 years old!”

“800?” Lance couldn’t help but splutter, because the average human lifespan was only 100 years (though many did live beyond that thanks to medicine and science). 800 was almost unthinkable. Though still a lot smaller than 5000.

“You know who that was?” Shiro asked her cautious.

“Yes,” Allura answered grimly, fingers once against curling into fists. “He’s Zarkon’s right hand. Appropriate, I suppose, that he would be given the Red Lion.” The last part came out as more of a mumble than anything else.

“Alright!” Shiro spoke up. “Let’s not panic.”

"Not panic? Th-The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us. We only have four lions." Hunk flailed as he spoke, holding up four fingers.

Pidge crossed his arms and shook his head. “Technically, only three working lions.”

Hunk patted his shoulder. “That’s right. Thank you, Pidge.” He moved to stand in the center of the room so that everyone could see him clearly. “Three working lions and a castle that's, like, 5,000 years old!”

“Actually, it’s 5,600 years old,” Coran piped up unhelpfully. “You see, it was built by my grandfather—”

“Thanks, Coran,” Hunk said, putting a finger up to the Altean’s face to cut him off. “See? Now is the perfect time to panic!"

“This castle does have a particle barrier we can activate,” Allura said, squeezing her hands together.

Lance couldn’t help himself. He raised an eyebrow and said, “Girl, you’ve already activated my par—“

“Lance!” Shiro scolded, narrowing his eyes at him.

Right, now was not the time for that. Lance couldn’t help himself though, he was weird when he was nervous and everyone knew it!

“We got some preliminary scans of the ship,” Coran said, pressing a few buttons, prompting a hologram to appear. “The particle barrier won’t hold against Sendak’s ion cannon forever. The Galra technology must have advanced since we fought them last."

“Panic now?” Hunk asked, looking towards Shiro.

"No.” He shook his head. “We've just got to figure out our plan of action, and figure it out quickly.”

Right, plans! He could do this! He knew exactly what they should do. Blue would have gotten creamed by that ship that was near Earth, and this one looked even worse just in the hologram. Lance thought of his Mamá. They  _ couldn’t _ stick around here. They had the lions now. They just needed to keep them away from the crazy, purple aliens. "I say we pop through a Wormhole and live to fight another day."

“I second that!” Hunk straightened up beside him, holding out his hands. “I mean, we tried to find all the lions, right? We gave it the old college try. Couldn't do it. We only have three. We can't form Voltron. I man, I guess we could form a...snake? Or a worm! To go through that hole, Lance, that you were talking about."

That sounded a bit crazy, but hey, no one else was coming up with anything, and he couldn’t imagine any better course of action. Lance smirked as he looked at Princess Allura. Now was his time to prove himself to her. The first impression hadn’t been all that good, but he could make up for that! He approached her with a smile. "Then, it's settled. Allura, you ride with me.” He nodded to Coran. “One of you take the old guy."

He ignored Coran’s seething for now. He’d thank him when they all lived through this.

“We can’t just  _ abandon _ Arus!” Pidge burst out, startling him. “The Galra will keep destroying planets and—and capturing  _ prisoners  _ until we stop them."

What the cheese? Pidge was supposed to be on their side.

Hunk seemed to be thinking the same thing. “If we run, then maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth. We form the snake-worm thingamajig and we—“ He clapped his hands together, wiggling them up-ward as he hissed “—out of here!”

It was only when Keith spoke up that Lance realized he had been oddly quiet. That wasn’t the Keith he remembered, who lorded himself over others because he was better. Despite the fact that he was, you know, kind of quiet most of the time anyway.

"Sendak could destroy the planet then come after us anyway.” He furrowed his eyes, looking from one person to the next. “Staying is our  _ only _ option."

What the  _ hell _ gave him the right to decide for everyone else? Lance shoved his hands in his pockets and glared at him. "Here's an option: shut your quiznak." Coran and Allura both gasped behind him.

Keith’s eyebrows twitched slightly, grey eyes zeroing in on him. "I don't think you're using that word correctly."

There it was. The belittling tone that was the norm for Keith, thinking he knew everything. “What do  _ you _ know, Mullet?”

Keith leaned in closer to him. “I know I’m not a coward! We’re staying!”

Oh, is  _ that _ how he wanted to play? Fine. Lance could play. “Who says  _ you _ get a say? You don’t even  _ have _ a lion! We’re leaving!”

Both of them had their arms crossed, so close that their foreheads were touching, glaring at one another heatedly. Lance ignored a brief flash of  _ something _ in Keith’s eyes at his words, choosing to sneer at him.

It had been a long day. He was so far away from home, he had already faced the Galra more than once, and his long-dried jeans still felt uncomfortable because wet jeans sucked. He didn’t need some impulsive drop-out risking everyone’s lives just because he liked to fight!

Though, Pidge was yelling that they were staying too, glaring at Hunk who yelled…’snake’ back? Okay, fine. That was fine. He was still on his side.

“Enough!” Shiro yelled at them, and they all instantly moved away from one another, Keith and Pidge standing side-by-side, glaring at him and Hunk.

Shiro took a deep breath and said, “Princess Allura, these are  _ your _ lions. You've dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we're facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?"

Her eyes widened at the question, her earlier rage suddenly gone as her vibrant eyes looked from one of them to the next. “I…I don’t know.” She looked down, and Lance instantly felt bad about arguing like that in front of her.

Coran looked at her sadly. “Perhaps your father can help.”

What? Everyone looked towards him as if he just declared himself ruler of the known universe.

Even Allura looked confused, before her eyes lit up in an almost childish wonder. “My father?”

“Come with me,” Coran said, motioning towards the door. He then looked towards them, a stern expression on his face. “You lot wait here, and don’t do anything! Got it?”

“Tell that to Mullet over there,” Lance grumbled, nodding his head at Keith, instantly turning Keith’s attention back to him. Not that he  _ wanted _ Keith to pay attention to him. It was just, they were rivals, right? This was what they were  _ supposed _ to do.

“Enough,” Shiro repeated again, a clear warning to his voice. He nodded towards Coran. “We’ll be fine here until you get back.”

“Thank you.” Coran nodded and led Allura through the door.

A heavy silence fell between the five of them.

They were supposed to work together to stop this evil alien emperor? Right. Lance would believe it when he saw it.

…

Allura had grown up in the Castle of Lions. She thought that she had explored every possible inch of it in her short 200 years of life, but as Coran led her down a dark hallway that glowed with patterns she didn’t even recognize, she realized that she was very wrong.

The door at the end of the hall slid open revealing a large, almost pitch black room, lit with only a few lines of quintessence to see. “Coran, what is this?" she asked in awe.

"King Alfor knew there was a chance he might never see you again,” Coran said mournfully, and Allura’s heart twisted a bit. Coran and her father meant so much to one another, especially after sickness took her mother when she was only young. It must be hurting him just as much as it hurt her to know that he was gone. “So, his memories, his very being, were stored in this computer for you."

Her heart leapt into her throat as she approached the console that was in the middle of the room, a single, glowing orb hovering there.

Allura hesitated before slowly reaching out towards it. The orb rose up to meet her, and the second the warm light brushed against her fingertips, it  _ exploded _ . The room around her started to change, forming into a painfully familiar green field with vibrant pink flowers, tall hills in the distance, and a bright aqua sky.

She stared in awe, heart pounding in her chest. She  _ knew _ this place.

This was Altea.

A mechanical hum that didn’t blend in with the rest of the environment caught her attention, and she turned to look at what she knew to be a holographic projector. It came to life, the image forming into the very familiar figure of her father.

“Father,” she breathed out. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she turned to run closer. “Father, it is so good to see you."

“Allura,” he replied, and she almost screamed, clenching her hands together over her chest. “My only child. How I've missed your face."

It wasn’t  _ really _ her father though. She knew that. He was gone and she had to remember that. Her smile dropped into a frown as she looked down towards the juniberry flowers. “I'm so frightened.” She knelt down beside the projector as everything caught up to her. It was too much. It was far,  _ far _ too much. Her Paladins were looking to  _ her _ for guidance, but she couldn’t do that for them. She was  _ only _ the Princess of Altea. She was  _ nothing _ compared to her father, who had done so much. “A Galra ship is set to attack, and I don't know what to do. Please, Father, I need your help."

"I would do anything to take this burden from you."

That was not at all the answer she was looking for. Hopelessness welled up within her as she leaned against the projector. "I don't know if we should run to preserve what we have or stay and risk everything. I want to fight, but the Paladins are gone.” She thought to the bickering that happened just before she came in here. No, those strange almost-Altean aliens would  _ never  _ be like the Paladins she grew up with.

"I scattered the Lions of Voltron to keep them out of Zarkon's hands,” Alfor explained, proving that her memory of the incident before she was put to sleep was true. “You urged me to keep them and fight, but, for the greater good of protecting the universe, I chose to hide them."

A lump rose in her throat and she looked away. “I think I understand.”

“No, daughter, you were right.” Her head snapped up to him, eyes wide with surprise. Even though he was just a projection, her father looked _ so _ sad and regretful. “I made a terrible mistake, one that cost the universe countless lives. Forming Voltron is the only way to stop Zarkon. You must be willing to sacrifice everything to assemble the Lions and correct my error."

The projection vanished, the vision of Altea vanishing again. She took a deep breath, thinking over her father’s words. He thought she was right. He thought she had made the right call.

“Allura?” Coran spoke up from the doorway. “Did that help, at all?”

She stayed silent for a moment, thinking over everything. She thought about the arguments in the bridge.

Her fingers curled into fists, grabbing at the fabric of her dress. Allura stood up and turned to face him. “Yes, it did.” She stormed by him, heading towards where her room used to be. Coran was following her, but that was fine. She knew he’d wait for her in the hall and give her a moment.

Allura ripped through her clothes, finding the space suit that she was looking for. It was made of a flexible armour that would keep her safe, and it was much easier to move around in. Once she shed her dress and pulled that on, she tugged her long hair up into a bun.

Coran raised an eyebrow at her as she stormed back into the hall, her boots barely making a sound on the floor (they were designed to be quiet, after all). She stormed into the bridge, somehow startling the five that were waiting there for her.

She looked from one to the next, as if sizing them up. "You five Paladins were brought here for a reason. Voltron was meant to be piloted by you and you alone.” It would take some work to whip them into shape, but she knew that she could do it. She  _ had _ to do it.

Allura walked closer to them, meeting their gazes one at a time before finishing with Shiro. “We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe's only hope. We are the universe's only hope."

They all stared back at her, even Keith and Pidge looking slightly taken aback, though they were arguing to stay since the beginning.

Shiro’s brow furrowed and he nodded his head sternly. “We’re with you, Princess.”

They might not be the Paladins that  _ could _ save the universe just yet, but by all the ancients, she’d make sure that they ended up being what the universe needed. She was not going to let anymore planets die like hers did.

It was time to suit up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's safe to say that I'm going to update somewhere around the 21st of each month, not necessarily a weekend. Why? Well...why not?
> 
> Small notes:  
> -Allura's life force was not connected to the lions by Alfor because 1. that went no where and 2. that was stupid as shit. Begone plothole.  
> -Lance does have a crush on her in the beginning, that's not something I'm going to erase because it leads to good character development.  
> -Alteans age very differently than humans and I'm not going to shy away from that. To be clear though, if Allura were human, she'd be 20. Shiro is 25. Keith is 18. Lance and Hunk are 17. Pidge is 15. Coran is timeless. 
> 
> Once again, I do not claim any of the dialogue you recognize from the show. It's just a means to an end. The end being something different. I promise you, we are going to diverge from the original. I have some fun things planned along the way!
> 
> Let me know what you think! Any little comment helps!
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> **Chapter Edited By:[Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon) & [MsBlueBell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsBluebell/)**


	4. The Rise Of Voltron

The castle, though fascinating, felt cold and empty. It reminded Shiro of a place that once had happiness and laughter echoing through the halls, but now the only sounds were the echoing of their footsteps, and the small squeaks from the mice as they scurried alongside the wall.

Shiro had absolutely no idea where Allura was leading them, but she was a woman on a mission, so he wasn’t going to distract her by asking questions just yet.

She led them into a dark room that lit up with turquoise light. There were more pods stationed in this room, except these weren’t housing people at all.

There were five suits before them with thick, white armour covering the feet, legs, arms, and chest, and a tight black suit underneath. Shiro’s eyes strayed to the torso area, where there was a fitted belt with some kind of silver containers strapped to the sides. That was cool, but that also left a lot of vital organs potentially exposed.

“Your suits of armour,” Allura said with a flourish motioning to them. “The white parts are made with a special weave, and a bit of quintessence, and while they can be destroyed, it would take quite a hit. It’s very sturdy. The black parts are made from a flexible armour for optimal movement and comfort. It’s weaker than the white armour, but still quite strong.” She frowned. “The downside for the flexibility, of course, is that impact injuries can still occur, so be aware of that.”

“These suits are designed for space,” Coran added, motioning to the blue armour. “As long as your helmets are sealed, you can last for quite a long time in environments without oxygen. Also, we can manufacture more of them in this room should parts get ruined or lost, but let’s try not to do that.” He paused. “Also they can recycle water from anything to keep you hydrated. Nifty little things.”

That actually put Shiro’s worries at ease. At least they weren’t wearing spandex suits or something like that. “Outstanding.”

Hunk stared at his suit, comparing the size of it to his own body and looking back at it skeptically.

“Princess,” Coran whispered to her, not quite keeping his voice low enough, “are you sure about this? They aren't exactly the best and brightest the universe has to offer."

“No, but they’re all we’ve got,” she replied.

“Alright boys.” Shiro glanced out of the corner of his eye at Pidge quickly before looking back at the armour. “It’s time to suit up!”

Shiro would like to say that it was easy to change into them, but it wasn’t like the suits had zippers, clasps, or anything like that. It took them awhile to figure out that, first and foremost, they could  _ not _ wear their own clothes underneath–limited to tight tank tops, briefs, and spandex-like shorts. He realized soon after that they had to put the black parts on when they were loose, which then sealed them in like a vacuum wrap. 

“It’s quite handy,” Coran informed them. “Should you experience a bad wound, the suit will seal around it to act as a form of tourniquet and splint. Unless, of course, the suit itself is highly compromised in multiple areas at once. Or with say a sword or claws powered with quintessence.”

So don’t get mauled by animals that could use quintessence. That didn’t seem like a difficult request to Shiro.

The other parts were a little more standard. Some parts clipped on directly to the black armour, like the knee pads, the shoulder armour, and the elbow pads. The rest just slipped on, but adjusted to fit their frames perfectly, sealing in a way that left no seams for anyone to take advantage of. 

Shiro looked around at everyone else, and couldn’t help but smile just a little bit. Where they looked the part of a rag-tag group that just happened to be thrown together before, now they actually seemed to belong together. At least at first glance. It was going to be a work in-progress, really.

“There  _ is _ something else,” Allura said, drawing the attention back to her. She pressed her hand against the aqua table Shiro had assumed was yet another control console, but this time, the top of it vanished, revealing four round objects. "The bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron. It takes a distinct shape for each Paladin."

She held out her hand, and Shiro watched as they floated to each person.

Hunk grabbed the yellow one, looking at it curiously before it burst into life. He gasped as what looked like a giant, futuristic  _ hand cannon _ appeared in his hands. He seemed to struggle with the weight for just a moment before being able to tug it up, grinning at it. Shiro didn’t take him as the type that would like something like that, but apparently he was wrong.

In a flash of red light, Keith’s changed into a thin sword that highly resembled a rapier. A second later, an energy shield appeared on his other hand. Shiro knew Keith’s fighting style well, and it was almost ballet-like, so having something lightweight that he could use to his advantage made a ton of sense, as opposed to something bulkier.

Blue light caught Shiro’s attention next, and a large blaster appeared in Lance's hands. He stared at it for a moment before excitedly whooping, holding it up and aiming it with ease. He seemed very comfortable with it, which Shiro supposed was a good thing.

Pidge’s changed in a flash of green light, and honestly, he wasn’t quite sure what it was. It didn’t get much bigger, but it was glowing green, and she seemed pretty happy with it.

“Aww,” Lance teased him, leaning over a bit. “You got a cute little bayard."

Pidge looked at him, clearly annoyed, and then hit him in the stomach with it. Lance shrieked as an electrical pulse knocked him over. Honestly, it took Shiro everything he had not to chuckle as Pidge said, “Yeah, it  _ is _ pretty cute.”

Good  _ god _ , already those two reminded him of siblings.

He was so focused on them that he hadn’t even noticed Allura approaching him until she was only a couple feet away. Her expression was apologetic, almost sad as she said, "Shiro, I'm afraid your bayard was lost with its Paladin."

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t the tiniest bit disappointed, but it wasn’t her fault, and he wasn’t going to take it out on her. “I guess I’ll just have to make due.”

She smiled at him and nodded her head, the smile melting into a stern, serious expression. “Is everyone ready?”

Hunk opened his mouth, but Shiro nudged him, cutting him off before he could start. “As ready as we’ll ever be, Princess.”

He really, really hoped that they were.

…

Keith liked to think that he was an adaptable person. That he could look at any situation, quickly take in all the factors, and change his plan of attack based on that. It didn’t always work out, but hey, he was still alive, so nothing ever turned out  _ that  _ badly.

Feeling a strange energy in the desert? Fine. Shiro crashing to Earth and having to flee the Garrison with three strangers? Sure. Finding a mechanical warship and getting launched into space? Could have been worse. Meeting human-like aliens? That’s fine.

For some reason though, Keith couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that they needed to find a lion (his lion) in the giant ship that was approaching Arus. Seriously, it was  _ huge _ ! Why was no one else concerned about this?

"That's a…pretty big ship,” Keith spoke up, eyes scanning the hologram. “How are we gonna know where the Red Lion is?"

"Oh, it's not a matter of  _ we _ . It's a matter of  _ you _ ." Pidge crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow as he grinned smugly at him.

“Pidge is right,” Hunk agreed. “Once we get you in, you'll be able to feel its presence and track it down."

“Yeah,” Lance said. Keith turned to look at him, uncertainty rising up within him as Lance crossed his arms and grinned at him in the same manner as Pidge. “You know how you felt that crazy energy while we were in the desert?"

Keith’s frown deepened. "Yeah. You made fun of me for that."

"And I'm proud of that,” Lance replied smugly, making something twist in Keith’s chest painfully, “but turns out it's exactly like that mumbo-jumbo."

Oh, okay. So everyone else gets paired off to go and find the lions, with special trackers that help them find exactly where they need to go, but he has to go on a huge ship and hope that he can feel it with no help at all, not even the offer of it. 

Keith kept his face passive, but he felt his heart sinking. He should have known that this wasn’t going to be any different from…well…anything else in his life.

“Keith.” He looked up towards Allura, who was staring at him sternly. “Remember what I talked to you about earlier. About the Red Lion.” Remember what? That it belonged to her  _ father _ at one point? That it controlled fire, which wasn’t at all his favourite thing in the universe? That it was apparently really picky?

Things that were really picky never accepted or chose him.

Shiro’s hand landed on his shoulder, squeezing comfortingly. “Alright, here’s our plan of attack. The Galra Empire knows about the Blue and Yellow Lions, but they don’t know we have the Green Lion too.” He looked at Hunk and then Lance. “Hunk, Lance, you’ll act as a decoy by pretending to give yours up.” He motioned towards Pidge. “While Sendak is distracted, Keith, Pidge, and I will sneak onto the ship in the Green Lion. Keith and I will find the Red Lion while Pidge guards our exit. Hunk, Lance, find some way to take down that ion cannon."

Keith couldn’t help but let relief flood him. Of  _ course _ Shiro wasn’t going to let him go wandering around the ship of a hostile alien species alone. If there was one person that Keith could believe in without any hesitation, it was Shiro.

Except, sometimes things happened that no one  _ meant _ to happen, but they still did, and that caused bad things to happen. If that made sense. Keith wasn’t sure it did. He wanted to believe in Shiro’s simple plan, he had all the faith in the world in him, but there were so many things that could go wrong, and he’d been burned by that kind of belief before.

They’d all have to trust one another to pull this off, and Keith wasn’t sure if he could do that.

…

Lance kept a confident grin on his face the entire time the plan was laid out, but he was so nervous that he kind of felt like he was going to puke. His hands were almost shaking as he held onto the sticks to pilot Blue.

He’d been so confident when they went through the wormhole to find Yellow, and that turned into a disaster. He would have  _ died _ if it wasn’t for Hunk. And there was something very different about teasing and tormenting his friend a lot, and thinking that he was  _ dead _ . Lance never wanted to even think that way, but he already was worried about it.

Lance glanced out of the corner of his eye, seeing the Yellow Lion gliding smoothly beside him as they approached the Galra ship, which was absolutely  _ huge _ . At the very least it was twice the size of the other one they had seen.

“Ready?” Lance muttered over the private comms to Hunk.

“Ready,” he replied, a bit of a squeak to his voice.

Lance pressed the button to start an open transmission with Sendak, who stood calmly, staring back at him. He hid the shiver that ran down his spine, keeping his face stern, almost angry. "Attention, Galra ship. Do not fire. We're surrendering our Lions." He cut the feed quickly, double checking to make sure that Sendak wasn’t still listening.

He looked up at the giant doors on the side of the ship, his face dropping into a concerned frown. “Hope this works.”

…

The Green Lion was actually quite a bit smaller than the Blue Lion, both on the outside and in the cockpit. It was a lot easier for Keith to grab onto Pidge’s seat, as well as one of the grooves in the wall, prepared to be thrown around by rough flying. It wasn’t that he had anything against Pidge, he just knew that he hadn’t flown outside of getting Green to the castle. Shiro stood opposite from him, an unwavering, stern expression on his features.

As it turned out, Pidge flew Green almost expertly, like he instinctively understood the programming and technology that made the lion tick. Still, it was a little sad that a brand new pilot was flying better than Lance had.

They approached the Galra ship from the back, hoping against all hope that they weren’t going to get caught, otherwise they’d have to come up with something else on the fly. Luck seemed to be on their side though. Pidge managed to dock Green to the bottom of the ship without them getting caught.

Getting out of Green and basically going on a space walk without being tethered to anything was a little nerve-inducing, but Keith was more excited than anything else. This is what he wanted to do since she was a child. Since his father sat him down on the roof of their house and told him stories about the stars.

Floating weightless, using their jetpacks to keep them on course, was an exhilarating experience that Keith wished he could appreciate fully, but they had a job to do.

Pidge summoned his bayard, using the heated end to cut a hole through the helm of the ship, which actually didn’t break down from the pressure change that would have occurred. He guessed that these ships had failsafes for that kind of thing.

Shiro drifted inside first, Keith and Pidge following close behind him. They had to go through a series of tunnels and halls before they finally found an airlock.

The room that they ended up in had violent streams of vibrant violet light that made the hair on Keith’s arms stand on end. He couldn’t stop staring at it, feeling almost drawn towards it.

Suddenly, Hunk and Lance were both yelling over the comms, startling Keith out of his thoughts. He blinked rapidly, tuning in on time to hear Lance confidently say, "Hunk, you dismantle the ion cannon while I take these jerks on a space ride!"

"Ten-four!" Hunk yelled back.

They continued making their way farther into the Galra ship, Keith leading the way. His dark eyes scanned the halls, but there didn’t seem to be anything around.

Keith was about to dart down the hall when Shiro suddenly let out a pained groan. He was pinching the bridge of his nose, his eyes squeezed shut. Keith had seen that before, in moments when pain and stiffness overtook Shiro, he would grasp on and squeeze the spot that was hurting.

Fear suddenly gripped him. There was no way that Shiro had the proper medications in space. While he could function without them, his medicine still made his life a whole lot better, and also slowed down the symptoms of his disease.

He opened his mouth to speak when Shiro suddenly said, "I've been here before. After I was taken by the Galra cruiser off Kerberos, they brought us here."

"So, that means your other crew members, they might be held captive here?” Pidge asked before Shiro could get another word out. He took a step towards him. “We've got to rescue them!"

Keith frowned. If that happened a year ago, he very much doubted that they were still there.

Shiro bit his lip, looking frustrated as he said, "Pidge, we don't have time. We have to get the Red Lion and get back to Arus."

Pidge’s fingers curled into fists at his sides as he narrowed his eyes. "But we can't just leave prisoners here!"

God, Pidge was going to get them caught from his yelling!

"Look, no one understands that more than me, but, in war, we have to make hard choices.” Shiro turned to face Keith, nodding at him. “Now, let's get moving."

“No!” Pidge yelled, causing both of them to stop and face him. He glared at them fiercely. “Commander Holt is my father. He and my brother were the ones on the Kerberos Mission with you!”

Keith blinked with surprise. But he  _ knew _ Commander Holt, and Matt Holt too, and he also knew for a fact that Matt didn’t have a younger brother. He had—oh.

Oh. He was  _ so _ stupid. That picture that Hunk had shown them quickly wasn’t of Pidge and a girlfriend, it was of Matt and  _ her _ .

Shiro sighed. “I know. You look just like your brother.”

Pidge flinched slightly, but kept going. “I've been searching everywhere for him and my brother. And I'm not going to give up looking when I'm this close. I won't!"

There was a long, heavy silence, Keith staring at Pidge sadly. He really felt bad for him—her. Her. Right. He knew what it was like wanting answers about family that just wasn’t there anymore. Shiro had been on a different ship much closer to Earth. Keith highly doubted that her family was still here.

"I'm coming with you."

Keith’s eyes snapped towards Shiro, alarm rising up in him even as he tried to keep his cool. “What?”

"I remember where the prisoners are held, and we don’t want Pidge to wander off on her own and get lost. Keith, you go find the Red Lion."

“By myself?” Keith tried to keep his voice from cracking. Yeah, Pidge shouldn’t be wandering around the Galra ship on her own, but it wasn’t like Keith had any idea where he was going either. He heard Hunk talking about being teleported to Yellow (who was already mostly dug up by the Galra), and Pidge basically being led to Green. It was  _ nothing _ like this.

Shiro was really going to do this to him, wasn’t he?

"Minor change of plans. You'll be fine.” Shiro assured him with a small smile. “Just remember, patience yields fo—“ A door opened at the end of the hall, and all three of them froze for a moment before Shiro prompted them to run. He and Pidge took off in one direction, and Keith went the other.

Keith skidded to a stop, hiding in the shadows as a couple robots walked by. These were the sentries that Coran warned them about. They scanned the ship earlier, finding very few biological lifeforms for a ship so big, but the castle’s scanner  _ did _ need fine-tuning, and they were only looking for Galra specifically. Coran assured them of that when the scanner seemed to think there was a Galra in the castle, which was weird. It kept doing that until he got it to scan the ship and not the castle.

The point was, Coran assured them that there were likely sentries on the ship, and to be careful.

He waited until everything went quiet, and got out of his hiding spot to hurry down the hall, running almost blindly. He started to feel a slight warmth in the air that made his skin prickle. It was similar to what he felt with Blue, but also different.

Keith ran until he reached the end of the hall, where a second one ran perpendicular to it in either direction. In front of him a massive symbol stretched across the wall. He had seen it briefly in other spots, but this was his first time stopping long enough to study it. It was very likely the symbol for the Galra Empire, something he hadn’t come across until that day.

So why did it look  _ so _ familiar?

Keith jumped at a loud clanking sound coming from behind him. He tore his eyes away from the familiar, yet strange symbol, and looked behind him. He needed to find the Red Lion before their cover was completely blown.

Though, listening to Hunk’s confusion about a barrier around the ion cannon, and Allura’s struggle to get one up around the castle, Keith knew that they were basically out of time already.

He followed the energy down different halls, but the ship was essentially a labyrinth of endless twisting hallways that didn’t make sense at all because they always seemed to lead him back to the same place. Or at least, a place that looked  _ similar _ to where he had started (with a Galra symbol glowing on the wall). For all he knew, the sentries that he kept hiding from were the exact same ones over and over again. 

Keith could feel his pulse spiking as heat seemed to creep up his neck and face, fingers twisting into fists.

“Patience yields focus,” he breathed out, rubbing his thumb back and forth against the edge of his index finger. He understood that they couldn’t lock in coordinates or anything into the little gadgets Hunk and Pidge had used to find their lions, they didn’t have an exact place to look aside from on the ship, but he could have really used some help with this. Even Hunk’s energy-detection thing would have been helpful.

Blinking rapidly, Keith had to try and calm himself again, knowing his thoughts were getting the best of him. But this vague feeling of energy being  _ somewhere _ didn’t fit what Hunk and Pidge described.

Maybe the Red Lion really didn’t want him.

Keith crossed his arms as he thought about what to do. In the end, it didn’t really change things, did it? They couldn’t leave the Red Lion with Sendak, so he had to find it either way.

Closing his eyes, Keith forced himself to focus on the energy and nothing else. It was dangerous, someone could sneak up on him, but his attention being divided really wasn’t working.

The energy wasn’t just warm anymore, it was positively  _ burning _ , and almost hostile.

His eyes snapped open, lips rising up to a slight smirk. “Gotcha.” He started running as the entire ship shook, knowing that they didn’t have that much time anymore if the others were fighting outside.

…

_ “Emperor Zarkon, we were scouting system X-9-Y as ordered when we found these primitive scientists. I don't think they know anything useful." _

_ "Take them back to the main fleet for interrogation. The Druids will find out what they know." _

_ "Please, we come from a peaceful planet! W-We mean you no harm! We're unarmed!" _

Shiro led the way through the halls more by muscle memory than anything else. Every hallway looked disconcertingly the same, but he still  _ knew _ where he was going. He remembered this place, but at the same time, the memories were fuzzy and not all there.

Matt, he could remember Matt. They’d been kept together, hadn’t they? Not Sam though. Shiro couldn’t remember seeing him after they were taken.

In his heart of hearts, Shiro knew that neither one of them were still on this ship. He wasn’t quite sure  _ how _ he knew that either, but he did. Pidge was going to run off on her own either way though, so he may as well take her to where she needed to go.

He had faith that Keith would be okay on his own, he was resourceful beyond anything else, but Shiro was still worried. He couldn’t remember what these aliens had done to him, but he did know that it was awful and he didn’t wish it on anyone, especially his brother.

Keith would be okay. He had to be. He was the strongest person that Shiro knew.

They went around the corner, and Shiro came to a sudden stop when he came face to face with a Galra drone.

Pidge lifted her arm and pointed it at the drone, pressing something on her gauntlet that caused the drone to fall down. When had she been able to look at the other functions in their suits?

Shiro decided to leave that thought as it was, narrowing his eyes at the drone. Pidge moved fast, but that didn’t mean anything. "That thing saw us. We should get out of here."

“Wait. I think this might come in handy.” Pidge knelt down by it, pulling a little tool he didn’t recognize out of the storage compartment on her belt. She pulled the drone open, took a look at its insides, and started playing with the wires before scanning it with her gauntlet. “Now, I'll just reset the controls…” It lit up again, but with a distinctive pale blue light instead of orange. A grin appeared on her face. “And it’s working for us! I’m going to call you Rover!”

Shiro gaped at her for a brief moment before he continued down the hall. Had she just taken one look at alien technology that she couldn’t have possibly studied before, and hacked it? What the  _ hell _ ? What were they teaching kids at the Garrison?

No. This had to be a Holt thing. They were all scarily intelligent.

He heard Pidge tell the drone to follow them as they continued down the hall, until they stopped at a familiar door. Shiro was  _ positive _ that this was the cell door. The only problem was getting inside. He didn’t want to break it or anything to alert anyone that they were in the ship. Sendak would no doubt send someone to protect the Red Lion, and Keith needed to get there first.

Then the little, triangular drone drifted forward, and Pidge said, “Open up.”

The drone beeped, it actually goddamn beeped, and then scanned the door and opened it. What kind of witchcraft was she  _ doing _ ? No one was this intelligent, yet here she was. He was equally impressed, and couldn’t stop himself from praising her. "Excellent, Pidge."

She grinned at him, but that grin fell as the door slid open. She didn’t even wait until the door rose the entire way, ducking under and calling out, “Dad?”

Shiro followed her in, and a quick scan around the room answered what he already knew, Sam and Matt Holt were  _ not _ on this ship. However, there  _ were _ prisoners there, and if they were going to be helping people, they couldn’t leave them there.

Pidge’s shoulders slumped, but she stayed focused on the aliens. "Don't be afraid. We're here to help you escape."

The aliens seemed to adjust to the light in the door, and Shiro couldn’t help but notice the sheer variety of them. One with multiple arms or legs, one that looked almost dragon-like, and a few others. It was astounding.

The alien closest to them stared before gasping. “It’s…it’s  _ you _ . The Champion!” He looked at the others around him. “If anyone can get us out of here, he can."

Shiro blinked, completely taken back. “What did you call me?” Why did that sound  _ horrifyingly _ familiar?

“Shiro,” Pidge spoke up from behind him, looking more than a little glum. “We don’t have much time left.”

He nodded in agreement. “Alright. Let’s get to the escape pods.” He looked at the aliens. “Come on!” He motioned towards the door, and the aliens slowly got up to follow them.

He had so many questions for them, but they could wait for now. Hopefully, he’d have the chance to ask them later on.

…

“Bingo.”

Keith knew that he found the Red Lion before he even entered the room. The energy surrounding him was searing, intense, more like a warning than anything comforting. For who or what, Keith didn’t know. If it was for him, he trudged forward anyway.

The Red Lion wasn’t nearly as big as the Blue or Yellow ones. In fact, she seemed to be just a tad smaller than the Green one. There was nothing notably different about her compared to the others; she was made from the same metal with colour that was fading in spots. Still, Keith was in awe. Her red armour was almost enough for him to just gawk at if he had time.

As Keith approached the barrier, he understood what Lance meant by feeling Blue’s eyes on him. Though nothing on the lion moved, he could feel her gaze burning into him, as strong and intense as the energy radiating from her. A shiver went up his spine. It was like being under the gaze of a predator that was sizing him up.

He reached forward, resting his hand against the barrier. It didn’t glow and vanish like Blue’s had for Lance, causing his heart to sink a little bit. Then Keith remembered what Allura told him. Red was picky and hard to control. A person who shied away from a challenge was no match for them.

Good thing Keith could never back down from one. He fixed his gaze firmly on the lion’s yellow eyes, not backing down from the intensity that overcame him. “Let’s get out of here. Open up.” He touched the shield again and nothing happened.

He groaned. “Come on. I’m your buddy! I’m Keith. I—am—your—paladin.” He paused and knocked on the barrier. “Or at least I have to be better than the people keeping you here!” The lion still didn’t move, and Keith’s stomach twisted.

He jumped as a purple bolt of light slammed into the barrier inches from his head. Keith grunted as he was thrown face-first into it, a shock of pain running up from the middle of his back. He didn’t think any of the shots broke through though.

Keith spun around, his shield coming to life, blocking the rest of the lasers from hitting him as the sentries shot at him. He wasn’t sure how many there were, but it was definitely  _ too _ many.

The Red Lion didn’t want him, that much was obvious. The thought of it made his chest burn and his eyes sting. His feelings didn’t matter though. He had to get the Red Lion away from these guys somehow.

His bayard appeared in his hand, changing into his sword, and Keith rushed forward, hacking through the weak joints and plating of the sentries that got close to him. The loud scraping of metal on metal didn’t bother him, but the sheer amount of these unfamiliar things did. There were just too many things hitting him.

A cry escaped his lips as Keith was thrown backwards, back slamming into the ground. He groaned, but managed to push himself up, his shield appearing again. His arms were shaking with every blast that slammed into it.

Keith couldn’t remember the last time he slept properly, or maybe even the last time he ate properly. He wasn’t stupid, there was only so long he could keep this up before he went down.

His eyes slid to the control panel that wasn’t far from him. The read-out in his visor came to life, scanning the Galran language on it and translating it to English for him.

Open airlock. Wasn’t  _ that _ convenient?

Keith slammed his hand onto the button, and the floor opened beneath the feet of the sentries. His shield vanished as he grabbed onto the controls, trying to hold himself there while figuring out how to close it. He was getting rattled around too much for his suit to catch on to anything to translate though, and Keith was sure that if he let go of even one hand, he would go flying into the vacuum of space.

His eyes turned up towards the Red Lion, heart dropping when he realized that the lion wasn’t moving. A part of him almost hoped that it would be enough to get the lion out of the ship so that another one could grab her, but she hadn’t budged an inch.

A cry of pain escaped Keith as a piece of flying debris slammed into his shoulder. Oh god, he had muted his comms, hadn’t he? He couldn’t take everyone else screaming into his ears.

There was no up or down anymore. All Keith could hear was his own panicked breathing as he flipped end over end. They had done simulations about what to do if they got dislodged from their ships during a spacewalk, but none of it was coming back to him.

When he ended up flipping around again, his first instinct was to cringe and recoil at the giant, gaping maw that appeared in front of him. As metallic jaws clamped shut around him, artificial gravity returned, and Keith slammed into the floor.

For a moment, Keith laid on the metal floor, breathing in and out heavily as his mind ran to catch up. Slowly, very slowly, he managed to push himself up, looking around with confusion before realization set in.

Red saved him.

Keith was vaguely aware of the pain still thrumming through him until he felt something warm wrapping around him. It wasn’t a raging inferno anymore, but a pleasant and protective blanket. 

_ Okay, Cub Paladin? _

Lance had described Blue as feeding pictures into his mind, but that wasn’t at all what Keith got. He could hear an actual voice whispering to him. It was deep and almost feminine, and Keith knew without question that he could trust it.

“Okay.” He pushed himself up the rest of the way, stumbling over to where he knew the cockpit was. They still had a mission to finish.

_ Remember jetpack. _

Keith frowned in confusion as he sat in the pilot’s chair. The seat gently slid up to the controls, and he suddenly laughed when he realized what the lion was telling him.

“I’ll remember that the next time I get thrown into space,” he replied with a smile. His hand rested on the controls, excitement rushing through him. She had accepted him as her Paladin! This was real!

Red felt like she was amused.

_ My Cub Paladin. Yes. _

Honestly, Keith was too elated to care about the ‘cub’ comment. He smiled and said, “Good Kitty. Let’s roll.” He thrust the controls forward, and Red took off in a shot.

His own excitement blended perfectly with Red’s, and for the first time in a very long time, Keith felt like he found a place where he belonged.

…

Pidge was more than a little infuriated that her father and brother weren’t with the prisoners. She  _ knew _ it was illogical, knew that the odds of them being there were slim to none, but she still had to take that chance because those slim odds were  _ still _ odds. Even one percent was still a chance.

These aliens likely had never seen or heard of her brother or father. If the Galra Empire was as bad as it was made out to be, they probably had thousands of prisoners, and that was a lowball number.

Honestly, a part of her wanted to just go back to the Green Lion and think of the next place she could try to look for her family, but Shiro was right that they had to help these people. They possibly had friends and family of their own that were worried about them.

They managed to find an escape pod that was open. Shiro stayed on guard while she rushed inside, programming it to go down to Arus before hurrying back out. “Hurry!”

They started running by her just as a deep, almost metallic voice rang from down the eerie, dark hall. “Halt!”

Pidge gasped when she saw the line of robots running towards them, guns in hand. Panic erupted in Pidge’s chest and she took a step back as Shiro ran up to her side, not sure what she was supposed to do. Yeah, she had a bayard, but what good would that little thing do against robots with guns?

Despite the fact that everything around them was lit up with purple light, her eyes still darted to Shiro’s hand as it started to glow. He looked at it in confusion, before his entire palm lit up, a pulsing, eerie black energy surrounding it. He cried out in pain, doubling over and holding onto it.

“Shiro!” Pidge cried out, looking down at him in horror. The sentries drew closer and closer to them, and she didn’t know what to do. “Shiro, what’s wrong?”

Then Shiro  _ shot _ forward, using his arm to not only deflect the blasts that were shot at him, but to actually  _ cut through _ the robots entirely. He moved quickly, much faster than someone his size should be able to, and the sentries never stood a chance.

The pod managed to slip away, and Pidge looked at Shiro’s arm with wide eyes. What had just happened? “That was amazing!” Because it truly was, there was no denying that. “Where did you learn to fight with that?"

He looked down at his hand, lifting it to look at it more closely. It wasn’t glowing anymore, looking normal as ever. “No idea.”

That…was actually a bit alarming, when Pidge thought about it. She’d have to ask to take a look at it later, even just the coding of it, because what she just saw was insane.

“Shiro!” They both jumped as Keith’s voice suddenly echoed through their helmets, and Pidge suddenly felt guilty. They had gone to break out some prisoners who definitely weren’t top priority and had run into trouble. She  _ completely _ forgot that it meant Keith was all alone in this hell ship. She hadn’t even found her family!

Pidge vaguely remembered seeing Shiro at the Kerberos launch, with a younger black-haired cadet, and had to wonder if that was Keith. They definitely knew one another, but that was about all she knew. Were they brothers? In pursuit of her own family, had she made Shiro leave his behind?

Oh my god, there were aliens with laser guns and they had left Keith  _ alone _ .

“Keith?” Shiro replied during her internal freak out. “Are you okay?”

“I got Red,” he replied, sounding kind of breathless. “We’re already out.”

“Ten-four.” The relief in Shiro’s voice was almost painful. “We sent a pod of freed prisoners down to Arus, and we’re heading back to the Green Lion now.”

“Did Pidge find her father and brother?” Keith’s question made her grimace, shoulders hunching a bit as she followed Shiro down the hall the way they came. Now that Keith had the Red Lion, the entire ship was going to be on high alert and they had to get moving.

“No, they weren’t here.” Shiro peered around the corner before nodding at Pidge. “We’ll be out soon. Help Hunk and Lance.”

“Got it.”

Pidge looked up at Shiro as they ran back to the hole that she cut in the side of the hull. “Keith might not be able to help them. He just got his lion.” Though she hadn’t been as rough at flying Green as Lance had been with Blue, she still struggled with it.

Shiro chuckled. “Don’t worry about Keith. He’ll be just fine.”

…

So apparently the Galra could use the same kind of particle barriers that the lions, and from what he understood, the castle could use. That made sense, considering how  _ old _ this technology was. Five thousand years was nothing to shake a stick at.

And Hunk, for one, was incredibly pissed off about this development. He lost track of how long he hacked away at the barrier around the ion cannon while Lance flew Blue around, taking out as many fighters as he possibly could on his own.

“Oh, come on!” Hunk groaned. He liked to think that he was a calm person, but this was ridiculous! The stupid thing wouldn’t budge at all! This was like every big budget Hollywood alien invasion movie where the aliens almost won because, oh no, they had a force field that nukes couldn’t work on, and Hunk wasn’t at all here for that. He  _ hated _ those movies. They were always stupid and unrealistic because really, what chance did humans have against an advanced alien species that—

Ugh. Nope. Hunk was  _ not _ going down that train of thought. Except, he totally was.  _ He _ was a human going against an advanced alien species. Though he also had a giant, alien-build war cat so there was that.

His brothers and sisters were never going to believe him if he got the chance to tell them about all of this. He really, really hoped he’d get the chance.

“Do  _ you _ have any ideas?” Hunk asked Yellow.

Hunk liked Yellow. His presence was calm, sturdy, but also very lighthearted. Hunk felt  _ safe _ with him, even when flying around an enemy ship.

He heard a gentle purr, the lion’s happiness surrounding him. It let him breathe a bit easier.

Then Yellow projected an idea into his head. It wasn’t like Lance described; he wasn’t getting  _ pictures _ in his mind or anything like that. It was more feelings than anything. Not specific words or sounds, but he still  _ knew _ what Yellow was thinking and feeling.

And right now Yellow wanted to  _ shoot _ the barrier, because he was getting annoyed with it too.

“Alright,” Hunk said, tightening his grip as he urged him to move. Hunk held on tightly as Yellow reared back and then opened his mouth, a massive, continuous beam of energy slammed into the barrier, the once invisible surface glowing purple.

“Come on!” Hunk yelled as Yellow shook around him, not letting up. “Just break, you stupid thing!”

He jerked back with surprise when there was a sudden shockwave of energy. He pumped his fist in triumph when he realized that they had successfully broken the barrier. “Score one for Hunk!”

Yellow shot forward, and Hunk used his strong armour to their advantage, slamming into the side of the ion cannon. It crunched under the force and weight of the lion, but Hunk made sure to hit it a few more times for good measure.

Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. At first, Hunk tensed, thinking that enemy ships managed to get by Lance, but then breathed out in relief when he realized that it was the Green Lion. “You guys made it!”

“Kitty Rose has left the stage!” Pidge replied, and it took Hunk a moment to realize what she meant when he saw Red flying up to him with Blue.

“I could have got that last guy!” Lance was protesting.

“You’re welcome Lance, for stopping that ship from hitting you from behind,” Keith replied sarcastically.

There was a pause and then, “Anyway, let’s get the heck out of here before we get swarmed again. I mean, I could take them, but I know Keith’s not used to his lion yet, and we need to get the Black one.”

Hunk groaned and shook his head, piping up before Keith could snap back at him, because he could already see where this was going and he just did  _ not _ want to deal with this right now. “I hope I stopped that cannon. I could barely make a dent in it!” Yellow grumbled a bit, and he patted the console. “You did good, buddy.”

The four lions flew away from the Galra cruiser back to Arus, and for a moment, Hunk felt like he could breathe easily.

They still had a lot to do, but everything was working out for now.

…

Shiro wouldn’t say it out loud, but he was feeling nervous as the four lions descended towards the castle and into what seemed to be a huge docking bay. The Black Lion was inside, had been this entire time, and yet, he hasn’t felt a whisper of any kind of energy. Though, to be fair, the only one that  _ had _ actually felt that was Keith, which was a bit weird, but Shiro had been a prisoner of a hostile alien species for a year, so in comparison, it was an okay weird.

“Oh my god,” Pidge muttered, breaking him out of his thoughts. “These idiots.”

He turned his attention to the chatter that was going on across the comms in time to hear Lance say, “Heads up, Newbie. Landing these things is kind of difficult.” The boy let out a yelp as he accidentally scrapped Blue against the side of a wall. “I did that on purpose to show you what not to do.”

“Sure,” Keith replied, guiding Red to the floor of the castle with a touch more grace than any of the others. Shiro felt a wave of pride rush through him. He knew that Keith would take to piloting these like he did to everything else. From the moment they met, Shiro had known that the stars were in Keith’s blood. It was good to see that he was right even now.

The five of them got out of the lions, and waited in front of a pair of massive black doors that housed the Black Lion behind them. Shrio couldn’t help but stare at them intently. This was how he could protect everyone else from the Galra so that the awful things that he knew happened to him wouldn’t happen to them.

The muscles in Shiro’s left arm cramped slightly, but he could deal with it. Though his entire body felt really strange anyway. Whatever the Galra had done to him to bulk him up made him ache a little more from time to time. His pain had never been that bad before, but now it was buzzing under his skin more often than not. Not debilitating, but noticeable.

Shiro had always wanted to explore the universe, to make every second of his life count before he was too weak to do it.  _ This _ was how he could truly do that.

“Well  _ hello _ , Princess.” Lance’s flirty voice prompted Shiro to look up. Sure enough, Allura was walking towards them, very pointedly ignoring the boy.

Once she moved past him, her eyes strayed up to the lions. An almost bittersweet smile appeared on her features. “It’s been…so long since I’ve seen all of them together.” She looked towards the Red Lion specifically, and for a brief moment, Shiro thought that she was about to cry. He had no idea how Alteans aged, but he got the sense that Allura was somewhere between him and the others in terms of age. He couldn’t imagine waking up and finding out that Earth, that everything he knew and loved, was gone.

She was made of stronger stuff than him.

Allura turned to Keith suddenly, smiling at him warmly. “I knew you’d be able to get Red.” There was a familiarity in the way she spoke about the lion. That one meant something to her specifically.

Keith seemed slightly taken back by the praise, before smiling in return and nodding. Whatever her connection to Red was, it seemed like she had discussed it with him. That was good though. Shiro  _ knew _ that Keith could use a friend, and he really got the feeling Allura could too.

Lance spluttered slightly, waving his hands around to draw attention back to himself. “Only because we all did our parts.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow. Was Lance jealous of Allura paying attention to  _ Keith _ ? That was actually kind of funny.

“That is true,” Allura agreed, turning her attention towards Hunk next. “You did an excellent job at getting that unexpected barrier down. The Galra didn’t possess things nearly that refined in the past. And Pidge, the pod that you and Shiro sent back with the prisoners landed safely. We instructed them to stay in the woods for now.” That made sense, they didn’t know what was going to happen with the castle next. Finally, Allura’s attention turned to him. “Are you ready? Coran’s monitoring the Galra, and we don’t have much time.”

Shiro took a deep breath, the muscles in his chest twinging a little bit. He’d have to see if there were some kind of Altean painkillers around later.

As he moved closer to the doors, Shiro heard Lance mutter, “Can’t help but notice how tiny the Red Lion is. Not like Blue.” Good lord, why was this kid constantly on Keith’s case?

“Well,” Keith replied in a dry voice that Shiro  _ knew _ meant trouble, “you know what they say about guys with big cars.”

Shiro almost  _ stumbled _ at that both from surprise and his sudden inhale of air.

“What do they say?” Hunk asked, sounding both reluctant and curious. Shiro stopped at the bottom of the stairs and glanced over his shoulder at them in time to see Pidge shrug. Lance’s face was red and mortified, while Keith looked entirely smug.

And this was supposed to be a serious moment. Bless ridiculous teenagers and their ability to alleviate the seriousness of any situation.

Keith suddenly looked up at the lions, staring at them with confusion, and Allura clasped her hands together, pressing them close to her mouth as she stared at Shiro with wide, hopeful eyes. It was only their reactions that let Shiro know something was happening.

The door started glowing the bright cyan that he was already associating with Alteans, and slowly, so slowly, started to rise up.

Shiro’s eyes as he caught sight of the massive metal paws of the lion that waited inside. For some reason, a part of him expected the Black Lion to be on the smaller side, like the Red or Green Lions. They were the head after all, according to Allura. As the door rose higher, revealing a gleaming, golden V, Shiro realized that wasn’t the case at all.

The Black Lion was  _ massive _ , bigger than all of the other ones, and seemed to have large wings on its back made out of a red metal.

Its eyes lit up, and Shiro suddenly  _ knew _ that the lion was aware of him. There were no images like Lance said, almost sequences of code like how Pidge said Green was talking to her. It was just a presence and weight around him, and he just  _ knew _ .

Black suddenly stood, rearing back, and let out a roar that seemed to shake the entire castle around them. The other lions responded, shifting from their sitting positions to standing ones, and roaring in response.

The Black Lion was relieved to see the others. Shiro knew that now. It had been 5,000 years for them as well, and they were a part of one another, connected in ways that no human could possibly understand.

These lions weren’t just war machines. They were something more. That was both amazing and utterly terrifying at the exact same time.

Shiro turned to look at everyone else. The other Paladins were all staring up at Black in awe, while Allura was staring at him with obvious relief on her face.

He wanted to question her, he really did, but before Shiro got the chance, the alarms in the castle started blaring.

“Oh, Quiznak!” Coran’s voice suddenly echoed through the air. “Is this—oh dear it’s already on. Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere!”

Allura pressed her lips together and said, “Paladins, we need Voltron, now!”

“Uh, how do we do that?” Hunk asked, raising a hand in the air. “Cause like, I dunno about the rest of you, but Yellow didn’t come with a manual?”

“The Lions of Voltron are connected in ways that are hard for even the most knowledgeable of people to understand,” Allura asked, her voice stern as she looked from one person to the next. “However, they all require a Paladin. I will explain more when we have time, but know that the lions are connected to each other, you are each connected to your own lions, and now, you’re connected to one another as well. I have full faith that you will be able to come together to form Voltron.”

The lions all bowed down and opened their mouths at the same time, waiting for them.

Shiro nodded his head. “Alright Paladins.” He looked at Keith, who was quietly observing him with his all-business, no-nonsense face, before turning to Lance, who had gone quiet and was watching him with serious eyes. He then glanced at Pidge, who was biting her lip, before turning his attention to Hunk, who honestly looked like he was about to puke again. “I know this seems scary, but keep in mind, these lions are supposed to be the strongest warships around. We have the power to save this planet and to stop this group of Galra. Are you with me?”

“Yes, Sir,” Keith instinctively responded.

“We got this.” Lance winked at Shiro, pointing finger guns at him.

“Yeah.” Pidge nodded her head.

“I guess,” Hunk agreed nervously.

“Let’s go.” Shiro turned towards the Black Lion, climbing up into the interior. The lighting was a subtle violet, making it darker than inside the other lions, but it wasn’t too bad. He was just glad that it wasn’t the same eerie, intense purple that the Galra used.

Sitting in the pilot’s chair felt right to Shiro, and he knew that Black felt right about him being there. He gripped the controls tightly, and pushed them forward, prompting the lion to leap forward and head to the entrance.

They had a planet to save.

…

Lance stared up at the shield around the castle as they flew out of it and landed on the ground, not quite sure what to make of the whole thing. They had done war-type scenarios in the simulators before, but this was  _ real _ . Those were real explosions that were rocking the ground. It was all real.

Blue sent him pictures of smiles and blankets, and all kinds of comforting things that she could think of. It actually did help a little bit. Then it changed and she started sending him warnings.

For a split second there was a purple light in front of them, but then an explosion rocked the very ground beneath them.

Keith recoiled in his seat when he saw the flames that circled around the outside of the barrier, his hands shaking slightly. There was just so,  _ so _ much of it.

_ Be calm, Cub Paladin. _ Red’s soothing voice spoke to him.  _ Not even lava can hurt me. _

He didn’t know if it was her soothing voice and presence, or the sheer knowledge that since fire was her element, he didn’t have to worry about it while he was with her. Either way, it actually did make him feel a little better.

That didn’t mean he liked being enclosed in a ball of flames though.

Hunk opened his eyes when the shaking stopped, looking at the scans that Yellow brought up in front of him. “Man, they repair things  _ fast _ .” He thought that he did a pretty good job at smashing the canon up, but  _ apparently _ not.

“Our barrier is old and hasn’t been used in a long time,” Coran’s voice rang out across the open comms. “Every hit it takes makes it weaker. If the shields go down, the castle will be defenseless.”

“Not entirely,” Allura interrupted. “Earlier I tried to get some of the castle’s offensive weapons running, and it looks like they’re kicking in now. I don’t know how long they’ll stay working, but I’ll cover you for as long as I can. You have to form Voltron  _ now _ .”

Hunk groaned at that. “No pressure.”

A second blast from the ion cannon had the shield flickering red and glitching. Shiro wasn’t a tech genius, but he knew that they couldn’t take much more.

Getting his teeth, he straightened himself up in his seat. "Listen up, Team Voltron!” Four screens appeared in front of him, video feeds from the other lions. “The only way to succeed is to give it all you've got! This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?"

It was hesitant, but all four of the teenagers nodded at him. He nodded back to them. “Let’s do this!”

Black led the charge through the barrier, running on the ground instead of flying in the air.

“Hey so, like, I have a question!” Lance called out, feeling the urge to raise his hand to get everyone’s attention. “ _ How _ ?”

“That’s…actually a really good question,” Shiro admitted. He racked his brain for a moment but came up with nothing. “Anyone have ideas?”

Hunk scanned the interior of his lion. “I don’t see a ‘combine into giant robot’ button anywhere on my dashboard.”

The lions kept running, the Galra fighters chasing after them and blasting the area around them. It made it hard to even think. "This is insane!” Pidge yelled, more than a little frustrated. “Can they just cease fire for like  _ one _ minute so we can figure this out? Is that too much to ask?" She swung Green around, running back towards the fighters instead.

Green leapt into the air, grabbing one of the fighters and throwing it into another one, both of them exploding mid-air. Pidge wasn’t  _ entirely _ one for violence, but that felt good. Green seemed pretty pleased with herself too.

Pidge had the right idea. Keith brought Red to a skidding stop, the lion indicating to press a button that popped up on the dashboard. Apparently they could shoot lasers from their tails? That was pretty cool.

Despite the fact that he took out a couple fighters, Keith knew that there were just too many of them. “We have to do something!”

Out of nowhere, Yellow collided with Red as Hunk yelled, “Combine!”

“What the  _ fuck _ , Hunk?” Keith cried out as he got Red upright again. If she had fur, it would probably be sticking up on end right now.

“Okay, that didn’t work,” Hunk said, and Yellow actually hung his head in shame.

_ Good _ , Red thought to Keith.

Shiro looked over as a video feed with Allura popped up. Her eyes were desperate. “Our energy levels are getting low!” She grunted as the castle apparently shook again, the feed flickering before going out.

He could feel sweat dripping down his face as his mind went over any possible solution. "Maybe if we fly in formation, we'll just…combine.” He glanced over at the side where Red was running beside him, almost able to feel Keith’s skeptical stare. Shiro’s original idea was to keep them on the ground running because they’d be more likely to stay closer together, but clearly that wasn’t working. “Take off on three. One—“

“Is that a  _ cliff _ in front of us?”

“—two—“

“Yup. And we’re still running at it.”

“—three!”

They reached the edge of the cliff, and the lions took off together. Black stayed in the middle with Red to his right, and Blue beside her. To Black’s left flew Green, and beside her was Yellow. No one had ever  _ told _ them what the actual formation for Voltron was, but the lions knew what they were doing.

Sort of.

In any other ship, flying upwards this sharply would have had them stalling. For what it was worth, the g-forces shaking them were really intense.

They flew for a couple moments, but it didn’t seem to matter. It took Shiro every bit of self-control he had not to snap at anyone. “Nothing’s happening.” Of  _ course _ nothing was happening. Voltron was supposed to be a team. He didn’t really know Lance or Hunk, and though he knew  _ of _ Pidge and had spent some time with her, he didn’t really know her either.

“Hey, wait!” Lance cried out. A bit of a red glow appeared around Blue, and it felt like he was being pulled. Was this it? “Wait, wait, wait! I feel something!”

“I do too!” Hunk exclaimed loudly. “It’s like we’re all being pulled in the same direction.”

Shiro really didn’t want to rain on their parade, but as they were talking, he noticed something up above them (apparently the lions had…a lot of blind spots). “Guys. Look up.” He didn’t mean to sound so dry or morbid about it, but couldn’t stop himself.

“What the cheese?” Lance’s response was so quick and unimpressed that Shiro  _ almost _ laughed at it.

Pidge pressed a few buttons on her dashboard, trying to scan the energy around them. “It’s like a tractor beam! I don’t know how to disrupt the energy to get us out!”

Stuck in the tractor beam, the only thing that they could do was watch in pure terror as a third blast from the ion cannon struck the castle’s barrier causing it to shatter and vanish, leaving Allura and Coran entirely exposed.

“I don’t care what you say, Shiro,” Hunk cried out, heart racing so quickly that he was surprised it hadn’t leapt out of his chest. Maybe his suit was holding it in at this point? Probably. He _ did _ know that he was crying. “I’m panicking!”

Pidge couldn’t stop her hands from shaking as she desperately flipped through the different options on the screens around her but couldn’t find anything to try and get out of this mess. Frustration welled up within her. "It can't end here!" She needed to find her father and her brother! If Shiro was alive, there was no reason to assume that they were dead.

Oh  _ god _ , her mother was going to think that all three of them were dead now.

Lance thought about the argument he had with his sister. He thought about Rachel, Marco, and Luis, as well as Lisa and little Sylvio and Nadia. He thought of his mother. He squeezed his eyes shut, hands curling around the controls as Blue shook around him. “This is it.”

Keith tried to get Red to move, to do  _ something _ , but there really wasn’t anything he could do. This couldn’t be happening. It  _ couldn’t _ . These aliens were going to take them all, and Shiro would have to go back to suffer again. Everyone would. God, he wanted to do something, he needed to do something, but there wasn’t really anything he could do.

This could have been an amazing journey for all of them, only to be cut painfully, painfully short. “It hasn’t been long, but it was an honour flying with you.” He looked up, seeing the cannon on the ship charging again. Fuck, it was going to fire on the castle. God, Allura and Coran weren’t going to survive either.

Shiro leaned forward, staring at his hands as they shook under the force of the tractor beam. These were  _ children _ that he was listening to. Kids that were suddenly given an extraordinary responsibility, but were being cut down on their first try. Kids that had plans and futures.

“No!” he snapped, hands clenching tightly on the controls. “We can do this. We have to believe in ourselves. We can't give up. We are the universe's only hope. Everyone is relying on us. We can't fail! We won't fail! If we work together, we'll win together!"

Black agreed with him wholeheartedly.

Keith closed his eyes and nodded his head, though he knew Shiro couldn’t see him. “Yes, sir.” Red purred gently.

Lance calmed his shaking and took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.” Blue sent little smiley-face pictures into his mind.

Pidge shook her head at first to clear her mind. “Alright.” Little beeps and bips came from Green.

Hunk swallowed a couple times, wishing he could wipe away his tears. “Okay.” Yellow sent him waves of encouragement.

Shiro closed his eyes, and suddenly, it felt like he wasn’t alone. He could actually  _ feel _ Keith, Pidge, Lance, and Hunk. It wasn’t like they were there beside him, it was like they were a part of him. From the gasps that he could hear, and the surprised thoughts and feelings that were echoing around the fringes of his mind, Shiro knew that everyone else was feeling the same way he did.

It truly did feel like they were being pulled together, the loud sounds of gears whirring and metal crashing and twisting together echoing around them. Yet, Shiro wasn’t at all afraid. None of them were anymore. How could they be afraid when everything around them suddenly felt so strong, bright, and powerful? They weren’t just lions, or just Paladins, or anything like that anymore.

They were Voltron.

Lance and Hunk urged Voltron forward, Shiro guiding them straight at Sendak’s ship. Keith lifted the right arm, and they slammed into the cannon, causing the blast of energy to streak past the castle and slam into the distant mountains and water.

It was only then that time seemed to catch up to all of them, and each of them realized exactly what it was that had happened.

“I…can’t believe it,” Keith breathed, in pure awe even as his stomach leapt slightly as Red was lowered back to Voltron’s side. As an arm, he was likely to get thrown around a lot. It was a good thing that they seemed to stay in the seats, despite their lack of obvious seatbelts or harnesses.

“We formed Voltron!” Pidge cried out excitedly, pumping her fist up in the air, able to feel the relief and happiness coming from everyone else as well.

“I’m a leg!” Hunk cried excitedly. He didn’t know  _ why _ he was so excited about it, but he was.

“How are we  _ doing _ this?” Lance asked. He was as aware of everyone else as he was himself. It was as if they were all one being instead of five separate ones. He’d never felt anything even close to this in his life.

“No clue,” Shiro admitted before focusing on the task as hand, feeling everyone else zero in on their target with him, “but let’s get that cannon!”

Voltron lurched forward, using its red and green arms to grab the cannon. Both Keith and Pidge pressed on, using the combined strength of their lions to rip the cannon clear off of the ship, tossing it back into the forest behind them.

The Red Lion was brought up into the air and slammed down through the hull of the ship. Keith grimaced a bit from the screeching sound of metal on metal, a few shocks ran through him. That didn’t stop him from getting Red to blast a hole clear through that part of the ship.

The resulting explosion surrounded them with fire, but he knew that he’d be okay, no one else felt alarmed by it, and Shiro honestly felt comforting.

As one, Lance and Hunk launched Voltron up into the air, before bringing it back down onto the hull of the ship, where they slammed through the metal.

“Don’t these parts look important?” Lance asked with a smug grin on his face. He didn’t have to say anything though. They all had an impression of what he was thinking.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Pidge replied as she unleashed Green’s blaster onto the ship, the violet lights around them flickering before dying.

Voltron leapt back high into the air, streaking up and up towards the sky before flipping around and coming back down. With the arms stretched out in front of them, they slammed clear through the middle of the ship. The crunching and screeching around them was almost unbearable at first, but the sounds soon became muffled, as if the lions themselves were changing things to suit their human biology compared to whatever or whomever had been their Paladins before.

Up above them, Sendak’s ship burst into violent flames and smoke that seemed to take up almost the entire sky. It wasn’t hard to outrun the shockwaves coming from it, and they landed on the ground with ease, turning to look back at the ship.

“Oh, wow,” Hunk breathed out. “ _ We _ did that.”

“We did,” Shiro replied, a smile passing over his features. “And we did it together.”

They headed back towards the castle, and the strange, slightly uncomfortable feeling of being pulled away from one another coursed through them all. There was light again, and their thoughts were their own as they were back in their individual lions. 

There was still a lingering sense of being something  _ more _ though, as strange as that was to describe.

The lions set down in the courtyard in front of the castle, and Lance couldn’t help but feel relieved over the entire thing. He loved being with Blue and being the sky, but he also loved being on solid ground too.

Hunk actually fell onto the ground with a groan. “The stress of this is going to knock me out. I’m  _ so _ tired.”

Actually, now that he mentioned it, Lance felt really tired too. It felt like  _ he _ had been the one running and jumping and, in a way, taking the hits that Blue took. He wondered if that’s how it was supposed to go.

Pidge hunched over beside Hunk, breathing heavily. Lance honestly felt like doing the same when Allura’s voice called out, "Good work, Paladins!" She hurried towards them, Coran only a couple paces behind her. Her eyes were wide with pure excitement as she clapped her hands together.

Lance couldn’t up but pull his helmet off and smile at her, hoping that his sweat-soaked hair didn’t look bad. Then again, he’d also been dunked into an underwater lake earlier that morning, and thrown around in a lion multiple times with and without the proper gear.

It had been a really,  _ really _ long day.

"Thanks, pretty lady,” he replied to her with a smirk. Her smile wavered a little bit, and the unimpressed look at she sent towards him made him grimace slightly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shiro approaching them. He looked around just in time to see his hero playfully smack Keith’s back, causing him to lurch forward slightly and glare at Shiro. A small wave of jealousy overcame him, but he didn’t quite know why.

"We did it,” Shiro said, his lips spreading into a smile.

Keith pulled his helmet off of his head, shaking out his hair just slightly. Lance watched it swish around his face, some of the ends sticking to his sweaty skin as he smiled just slightly in response to Shiro. "Fuck yeah, we did,” he replied.

Shiro slapped his arm. “We’re making a swear jar just for you.” Keith stared at him, eyebrow quirking up as his smile turned into a smirk. Everything about him screamed ‘challenge accepted’. God, Lance what Lance wouldn’t give to have him look at him like that.

Wait,  _ what _ ?

“How did we  _ do _ it?” Shiro asked, as if fully realizing the implications of everything that had just occurred.

“I dunno about you guys, but I was just, like, screaming the whole time,” Hunk admitted as he stood up and took his helmet off. He smiled smugly at Pidge. “Maybe  _ that _ did it?”

Pidge rolled his eyes at Hunk as he put his glasses back on, which was kind of odd. Shouldn’t he have been wearing them the entire time? Lance knew that when Veronica lost hers, she was a blind as a bat. It was why she couldn’t be a pilot and always carried spares on her. 

Lance frowned as Pidge did, not sure why his teammate looked so put-off. They had just controlled an amazing robot that crushed an alien ship! That was totally badass and like nothing that could have happened back at the Garrison.

Shiro placed his hand on his shoulder, and stared at him seriously, "We're not going to stop searching until we find your brother and father. Wherever they are, I know they'd be proud of you."

Wait,  _ what _ ? His brother and father were in space somewhere? That made…a ton of sense, now that Lance thought about it. Pidge’s reactions to Kerberos coming up, how many times he asked Shiro about the rest of the crew. Holy moly. That was a revelation.

Pidge smiled up at Shiro.

Allura’s smile dropped off of her face as she said, "We won the battle, but the war has only just begun.” She shook her head. “I'm afraid Zarkon will not stop until he gets these Lions. He was obsessed with them 5,000 years ago, and I doubt that’s changed now."

Coran, in complete contrast to Allura, smiled at them all. "Good thing you Paladins know what you're doing, because you're going to have to form Voltron again and again."

“Totally,” Hunk answered, before frowning. “Wait, what?”

Thank you, Hunk, that was  _ exactly _ what was on Lance’s mind. How could they be expected to do this again and again? "We barely survived forming Voltron this one time." Not to mention how strange and intense it had been, like he was himself but he was also more than himself. He felt everyone else right there with him.

He’d felt the swooping anxiety that had taken over Hunk. The apprehension that Pidge hid behind his techno-babble. The fear that peppered Keith’s confidence.

It made him wonder what  _ they _ all felt from  _ him _ .

Not catching onto their worries at all, Coran continued talking. "And you only had to fight one ship.” He took an awkward step towards them before throwing his hands into the air. “Wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them!” He backed up beside Allura, fiddling with his bright orange moustache. “It's not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe."

The words slowly sank in, taking Lance by surprise. Though they weren’t connected anymore, he could feel it coming off of everyone else in waves too.

Shiro chuckled and turned, looking up towards the lions, who sat tall where they landed them. “Defenders of the Universe, huh? That’s got a nice ring to it.”

Lance followed his gaze up towards the lions, nodding his head in agreement along with everyone else. It really,  _ really _ did sound nice, didn’t it?

A loud grumble almost  _ echoed _ around them, and Lance instantly turned towards Hunk. “Way to ruin the moment, man.”

“Hey, that wasn’t me!” Hunk threw his hands up in the air. “Uh, this time, at least.”

He looked down towards Pidge, who flushed in response. “What? I’m  _ hungry _ . The last thing we ate was the sketchy canned food at Keith’s shack! It’s been a long day!”

“Ah yes, that it is,” Coran agreed with them, which was good because Lance didn’t want anyone to hear his grumbling stomach. “Come along, we’ll get you all some sustenance, you deserve it!”

They followed Coran, Allura following them as they headed inside of the castle. She caught up to Keith, walking alongside him. “How’s the Red Lion? Was it difficult to reach him?”

Keith huffed out what may have been a very tiny laugh. “She definitely made me prove myself to her. You were right about that.”

Allura smiled at him, and Lance felt his stomach twist as he watched them. “You’ll tell me if he…if  _ she  _ brings up anything about him, won’t you? I—I’d really appreciate it.” She placed a hand on Keith’s arm while looking up at him hopefully.

“I need a shower,” Lance complained loudly, startling everyone. What the  _ cheese _ was he doing? Oh well, might as well keep going. “And, like, if I stink, I’m sure Keith smells awful.”

Keith glowered at him, and Allura’s hand fell away from his arm. Lance couldn’t help but feel a little smug over…one of those things. Both of them? He didn’t know.

“Okay, okay,” Shiro called out to them. “It’s been a long day, and we all need to unwind, so let’s not fight.” He looked at the man they were following. “Coran, is there anywhere we can get freshened up or anything?”

“Freshened up,” Pidge repeated, clearly amused, laughing when Shiro nudged him gently.

“Our clothes would be kind of gross by now,” Hunk pointed out. “And we only have those ones with us.”

“Not to worry! Those bins I got you to put them in would have put them through the wash cycle and delivered them back to your assigned rooms,” Coran said, sounding completely chipper for someone who had nearly been blown up less than half an hour ago.

“We have assigned rooms?” Keith asked.

“That’s right! Comfortable with all the storage you’ll need, and private bathrooms!”

Lance almost felt like crying. He lurched forward and threw an arm around Coran’s shoulder. “You’re a  _ blessing _ . I miss showers where I don’t run the risk of seeing some random dude’s butt.”

“No one asked you to stare at James Griffin’s butt,” Hunk muttered.

“What the  _ fuck _ Hunk.” Lance stared at him, genuinely horrified by that. “I wasn’t  _ staring _ at it on purpose. When something that pasty and flat comes flying by, you can’t help but wonder what’s going on.”

Keith snorted, loudly. Lance looked over at him, and he genuinely looked like he was about to laugh. Actually, now that Lance thought about it, Griffin and Keith had that  _ thing _ going on, didn’t they?

“Hey wait, Keith, didn’t you like…punch him in the face before?” Hunk spoke up. Yeah, that was the thing that Lance was thinking of. “What was up with that?”

His smile faded into a scowl, brow furrowing. “James Griffin has always been an asshole, let’s leave it at that.”

Okay, he sounded  _ genuinely _ bothered by that. Lance quickly turned the conversation back to Coran, asking about the castle, and wondering if there was any place they could find a map because he was absolutely going to get lost.

“I’ll be sure to get you all some communicators to carry with you. They have all kinds of neat functions. I used to take fantastic pictures with mine!”

“Coran,” Allura spoke up, cutting him off before he could go on about a wild tirade about whatever the communicators were (Lance still wanted one of them).

“Right, right, sorry.” Coran came to a sudden stop and motioned towards the doors they just walked by. “These are your rooms. The doors aren’t motion activated like many of the others are. You have to press your hand to them, like this.” He simply put his hand to the door he was beside, and it slid open. “You can, of course, lock them from the inside if you need to. I’ll make sure to light a path on the floor so you can find your way to the dining hall.”

They quickly figured out whose room was whose, with Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk on one side of the hall, while Keith and Lance were on the other.

They all assured Coran and Allura that they would be okay, going inside of their rooms. They all needed a little while to decompress. A lot had happened.

Lance walked inside, looking around the room. It was way bigger than any room he ever had before, having to share with Marco for as long as he could remember. It was big, but it was also cold and empty, devoid of any colour, and of anything else.

That was fine though, right? It wasn’t like they were staying here for a long time. This wasn’t  _ his _ room. It was just like a hotel room.

Lance made his way over to what looked like two doors side by side. He pressed one, grinning a bit when he saw a closet. In it were shelves that he was pretty sure was for his armour, with a couple metallic dresser drawers under that. Beside it, hanging up, were a robe, a heavier jacket, and a few other things, all in some shade of blue or another.

He explored the other dresser drawers, finding things that looked like comfy running pants and shorts, pyjamas, and several other things. The texture of the fabric was strange, but it was better than having only one set of clothes.

He pulled off the armour, tugging on his own clothes. He stared at the armour, running his hand over the helmet. Everything that had happened in the last 48 hours felt more like a fever dream than anything else. He wasn’t sure if he  _ wanted _ to wake up and find himself back in the Garrison though.

About to close the drawer, Lance found himself pausing as he stared at the lone device within it. His cellphone.

Slowly, he picked it up and stared at it, thankful that it was waterproof. The battery was only at 25%, and for some reason, that made his stomach twist. He’d have no way to charge it, though it was just a phone so it wasn’t like it was a big deal. The tech in the castle was way cooler.

Except…

Lance opened his photos and had to go back pretty far, beyond the selfies of himself, him with Hunk, a few of him with Jenny that he needed to get rid of, finally stopping when he reached the ones from his last couple days of summer vacation. His parents, his grandparents, his siblings, his niece and nephew. They were SO far away now that he couldn’t recognize any of the constellations, literally in another galaxy.

He took a deep breath as he sat on the bed, his mind wandering. The Garrison had very clearly lied about what happened on the Kerberos mission. There was no way they wouldn’t have known that something funky ended up happening to the crew, yet they lied about it.

What lie were they going to tell his parents when they realized that  _ he _ was one of the ones that busted Shiro out and vanished? Dear Mr. and Mrs. McClain-Rivera, your son has met his tragic end in a training exercise? God, probably.

Lance’s eyes watered as he thought about it, slumping down on the bed and pulling his legs up to his chest as he stared at the family photo on his phone.

What about Veronica? She was there. She would have known that something strange went down, that it wasn’t a training exercise. Though with the explosions that Keith set off, they’d likely have an excuse for how he perished, and she wasn’t super high ranking or anything.

Oh god, the last time he saw her, he  _ fought _ with her. Lance suddenly felt like he was about to be sick.

He wasn’t hungry anymore. He just wanted to stay there, curled up in the bed (not  _ his _ bed, because it wasn’t his, they weren’t staying that long), and stare at his family for a little while longer.

…

Hunk was glad to get the armour off. It fit surprisingly well, he’d been a bit apprehensive about that at first, but honestly, it wasn’t bad at all. It was kind of like flying Yellow. He’d been freaked out about the entire thing, but once he was there with him, it was fine. Even now, he could feel the lion’s strong, sturdy presence.

Though Lance had been ribbing Keith earlier about smelling, Hunk had to grimace as he got a whiff of himself. Okay, maybe that was also because he had puked several times today and ate that nasty green food that Coran tried to give to Allura, but still!

Thankfully, Alteans seemed to share similar ideas as to what a bathroom should look like, or maybe the castle altered to their biology. That was something to look into later, because honestly, he was  _ fascinated _ but how everything worked here. Some of the things he’d seen so far didn’t really make much sense, but hey, that’s what exploration and experiments were for. He was sure that Pidge would help him.

Hunk grimaced a bit at the thought of his friend. Okay, maybe he shouldn’t have gone through her diary, but he couldn’t help himself. He was always itching to know more about people! He wanted to know how Shiro’s arm worked. He wanted to ask the Alteans nearly everything he could about their culture. He wanted to know why Keith had been expelled. He wanted to know why Lance was  _ constantly _ poking and prodding at Keith.

He also really wanted to know how these Altean showers worked. There were  _ so _ many buttons and he had no idea what any of them meant.

A stroke of brilliance hit him, and Hunk darted out of the room with one of the strange, Altean towels wrapped around his waist, just in case Pidge or Allura happened to pop into his room for some reason.

Hunk shoved his helmet back onto his head and went back into the bathroom, an excited ‘whoop’ echoed around the room as everything translated into things that he did recognize. Warm water. Cold water. Boiling water. Hair wash. Body wash. There were loads of options. He’d have to find a way to make a sign.

Though the one about pressure made him curious, and also very thankful that he wasn’t standing in the shower when he pressed it, because the water slammed into the wall hard enough that it probably would have knocked him over. Also, the water came from the walls. That was…interesting.

Once he was cleaned and back in his clothes, Hunk flopped down on his best to rest his aching body for a bit. He was  _ tired _ . Yeah, he was hungry too, but he could really use a nap for a while.

His hand drifted down to his pocket, face falling when he remembered that he  _ didn’t _ have his cellphone. There would be no texting his brothers or sisters when he was bored or wanted something. No bad jokes from his dad.

Hunk wouldn’t be able to call back his mother. More than anything, he wished that he had answered his phone last night before Lance burst into his room. Yeah, he would have had to admit that he failed a test, but he would have still talked to her.

Wow, that was only  _ yesterday _ all of that happened. Now they were in space so far from home. So far from their families.

“There’s nothing you can do, Henare,” his mother would have told him if he was there. “This is where we are now, and we’ll make the best of it. It’s okay to be sad though. Let it out. It’s better out than in.”

Hunk let his tears fall.

…

Pidge was very quick to start looking around her room for some form of power. Her laptop wouldn’t last  _ that _ long, and she knew that her adapter wouldn’t work with Altean technology, so, for now, she’d have to study it and figure out how to make the two things compatible with one another. She was sure she could do it.

Her heavy bag found its way into the room, and she was quick to unload it, leaving her tech around haphazardly in a way that would have had her mother scolding her. That was fine though. Her mother would thank her when she got back home with dad and Matt.

A pout appeared on her lips as she opened up her laptop, wishing that she could go online, but that definitely wasn’t possible. There had to be some way for aliens to access information in a similar sense, but who knew what that was?

Instead of worrying about that, Pidge opened her word processor to a clean document.

Guilt washed over her. She wasn’t going to be able to send her daily email to her mother. Instead, the Garrison, like the little liars they were, would probably tell her that there was some kind of ‘training’ accident or something like that. Her mother was going to think that she died.

No. No she wouldn’t. Her mother would get  _ suspicious _ . She wasn’t going to rest until she got answers, because she was a Holt, and that’s what Holts did.

Also, Nonna would  _ know _ . A shudder rushed down Pidge’s spine. She didn’t  _ know _ how Nonna would know, but she would. She was so sure that Matt was alive, and honestly, just hearing that was like a confirmation to Pidge.

Still, some day she would be back home, able to tell her mother everything that had happened. Just because she couldn’t  _ send _ the emails didn’t mean that she couldn’t  _ write _ them. Also, it meant that she could speak more plainly and not in code. Unless Hunk somehow figured out how to hack into her computer to snoop.

Pidge eyed the wall, knowing that his room was on the other side of that, before turning back to her laptop. She didn’t want to keep it on for longer than she had to until she figured out the power situation.

Her fingers flew over the keys quickly, taking note of everything that had happened since her last email, and there was so, so much that it was nearly impossible to believe that it all happened within a single day.

She hesitated. How was she supposed to describe what it  _ felt _ to fly Green? It was so peaceful and freeing, and already she could tell just how intelligent her lion was. She’d never had anyone able to understand her so instantly—had never been able to understand anyone else in return the same way.

Pidge wanted to know what Green was, because she was definitely sentient with a mind of her own, and not just a machine. She had so many questions. Not just about the lion, but about  _ everything _ .

Except, as amazing as Green was, staying with her was a huge responsibility, wasn’t it? One that she might not be able to keep. If she got a lead on her dad or Matt…

Shrugging off her own thoughts, Pidge tried to describe Green to her mother, her loudly gurgling stomach reminding her that she needed to go and eat.

She finished typing out the last little bit, saving the file and turning off her laptop. She set it carefully on her bed as she stood, keeping a hand on top of it. “We’ll all be back home soon mom, I promise.”

It never once occurred to Pidge that making a promise like that might not be a good thing, even if it was just to herself.

There was no telling if she’d be able to keep it or not.

…

Keith grimaced as he looked at himself in the mirror of his bathroom. Jesus, he was an absolute mess.

He was more than a little glad that he thought to use his helmet as a translator for the shower controls, because he probably would have ended up with even worse bruises on his body. The warm water hadn’t done much to help the bone-deep ache that they left behind.

On one hand, he now knew for sure that the suits could actually hold up to the lasers that the sentries were using at the time, though he wasn’t stupid enough to assume that it’d work on everything. Still, it was a bit of a relief knowing that they could take a beating in the armour, because he definitely would have died in his normal clothes.

Keith managed to get his jeans and boots back on with relative ease when he heard a knock at his door, though it didn’t slide open like he thought it would. Maybe the door needed a full palm against it to open? He’d check later.

“You decent?” Shiro’s voice called out to him.

Warmth rose up in him as he heard his brother’s calm voice. “Yeah.” He didn’t even think about the fact that he didn’t have his shirt on yet, not until he heard Shiro’s sharp intake of breath.

“What the  _ fuck _ , Keith?” he demanded, his voice stern as he took in the small bruises that dotted around his torso from the laser guns, and the larger one from when the debris had slammed into his shoulder. Keith hated to imagine what that one would have looked like without the armour.

“It’s nothing,” he assured him, managing to hide a wince as he tugged his shirt over his head. “You good?”

Shiro pointedly ignored his question. “You’re black and blue!”

A bit of ire rose up within Keith, and before he could stop himself, he snapped, “Yeah, well I was alone with the Red Lion, and she wasn’t letting me in. There were a lot of sentries. I did the best I could!” That was all he really could do.

Shiro eyed him for a moment before nodding. “Wait here.” He left the room, returning in almost record time. Shiro came back with this strange tube of stuff in his hand. “Coran gave this to me earlier to help with  _ my _ bruises and stuff. Said he imagined the Galra didn’t go easy on me, and that this helps with bruises and wounds even though Alteans apparently don’t get things like that. They keep it around for species that do.”

“That makes sense,” Keith said with a nod. At Shiro’s questioning look, he clarified. “Earlier I had to help Allura stand up, she wasn’t feeling good. Her skin feels smooth one way and sharp the other.”

“Sounds like a shark,” Shiro noted, and Keith shrugged in response. He had never seen the ocean before, which was kind of funny, because there was one right outside of the castle. Wow, he saw an ocean on a distant planet before he saw one on Earth. That was actually really sad, when he thought about it. “Anyway, let’s get some of this on you.”

Shiro had always been Keith’s more easy-going guardian, with Adam being the stricter of the two, but when he did become protective, it was usually just best to go along with him before he turned into a concerned mother hen.

Keith hissed as he brushed some of the cream over his own bruises. It wasn’t cold, it just hurt. He glanced at Shiro’s prosthetic arm and frowned. What right did he have to complain about pain? “Does it hurt?”

“My arm?” Shiro asked, the hand clenching instinctively. “Not right now. It hurt a bit this morning. Phantom pains, I think.” He paused for a moment. “I came here for a reason. I wanted to apologize to you. For going with Pidge and leaving you. For not coming back from Kerberos.” He laughed bitterly. “Adam was worried something would happen. Looks like he was right.”

Keith moved away from Shiro, pulling his shirt back down and grabbing his gloves to put on. “He was devastated, you know.” He couldn’t keep eye contact, focusing on his red jacket instead. “I couldn’t…I couldn’t be around him. The Garrison didn’t think he was okay either.”

“What?” Shiro’s brow furrowed as if he didn’t understand.

“Mandatory leave. I—they made me a general ward of the Garrison. Then the State after I got kicked out.” Keith thought about that. “Well, I’m a runaway technically, not that anyone cared.” Like hell he would have gone back to an actual foster house. He was already listed as a discipline problem, but he was nearly  _ arrested _ for what happened until Adam stepped in to defend him. It wasn’t enough to keep him there, but it was enough to drop the potential charges.

Shiro looked  _ horrified _ by this revelation. “You said Adam—“

“Kept an eye on me,” Keith interrupted. “Found me. Helped me. We went over that.” He paused. “I left him a note when we left explaining what happened.”

Would Adam have believed them about everything else that happened? He’d been more skeptical of Keith himself at first, and he’d simply been a foster kid. Keith had always appreciated just how grounded the man was.

This situation, this was something else altogether. “Do you really think we can do this?” He thought of Hunk’s panic, of Pidge’s quick abandonment of their plan. “I mean, we’re kind of just a bunch of kids and the others don’t seem to like me much.” Keith felt  _ stupid _ admitting that, like a small child who everyone ignored on the playground. “Not that it matters.”

“It matters, but I think you’re wrong. They just know one another, and they don’t know you yet, or me,” Shiro explained, because Shiro could always explain in a way that made sense to Keith. “Except for Lance. He seems to know you?” His voice rose, clearly questioning it.

Keith groaned out loud and couldn’t stop himself from muttering, “Why are the pretty ones always  _ jerks _ ?”

A smirk rose up on Shiro’s lips, and Keith was  _ instantly _ on guard. He knew that look. Sure enough, the man gave him an almost innocent look as he said, “You mean like Griffin?”

“ _ Listen _ , Lance may be a jerk, but he’s not nearly as bad as him. So far.” That was true. Keith had known James Griffin since middle school, and they had gotten along at first, but for some reason, after their school dance in sixth grade where they were supposed to hang out with one another, James started acting like a jerk. Okay, maybe the reason was because James actually asked to dance with him, and baby Keith had promptly said ‘ew’ in response.

He still felt like he made the right choice then.

“So,” Shiro pressed on. “Lance is a pretty one, huh?”

Keith’s eyes widened and he grabbed the pillow that was on the bed, making a mental note to see if he could swipe more from somewhere else around the castle, he did love his pillows and blankets. For now, he had one, and he used it to smack Shiro. “Shut up! You are the  _ worst _ brother _ ever _ .”

Shiro laughed that honest, deep, booming laugh of his. “You mean the best.” He grabbed the pillow and tossed it over his shoulder, expression softening. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Keith smiled in response. “I’m glad you are too.”

“Come on, let’s get some food.” Shiro nodded towards the door, prompting Keith to follow him out. He clapped a hand onto his shoulder. “And don’t worry about the team. It might be hard at first, but things will work themselves out.”

Keith wasn’t sure how much that actually helped, but he still took a deep breath and nodded his head. He trusted Shiro more than he trusted anyone else, so he’d believe him for now.

…

The Castle of Lions was once a lively, bustling home full of laughter and life. When his Pop-Pop Wimbleton designed it and started construction, he envisioned a castle that could travel across the stars. It had started construction even before Coran was born.

Then everything changed when Alfor created the lions, and the castle was altered for them specifically. Pop-Pop Wimbleton had been very old at the time, and took great pride in all the changes that he managed to make to incorporate Voltron.

Now it was so empty and lifeless. It actually made Coran glad for the poor, haphazard Paladins who seemed subdued at times, but also came to life around one another. Sure, there may have been a lot of arguing, but that was fine for now. It was better than the silence of the castle.

He stepped into the bridge, staring at Allura, who remained on the platform in the center of the room. He watched her for a moment, taking note of her hunched shoulders.

“It’s late,” Coran spoke up as he approached her, hands behind his back. “You should get some rest.”

Allura’s eyebrows pinched the same way they had since she was a young baby and didn’t particularly like what she was hearing. She’d always been a stubborn girl that pushed herself far too hard.

“We’ve rested for long enough,” she replied firmly. There was a wariness to her eyes though, like she wanted to just collapse and cry. She pressed a few buttons and the star map lit up around them, little red dots and indicators staining the blue light. “All of these are cries for help, and we were  _ asleep _ .” She waved her hands in the air, and they all vanished. “None of them are still active. Not one. Our allies are  _ gone _ .”

“Yes,” he nodded his head with a sigh. “Yes, that’s very likely the case.” To Coran, it was highly likely that being Altean would mean nothing at all. Zarkon had been gearing to entirely wipe out the Alteans and all knowledge of their existence.

He didn’t tell that to Allura though, she’d had enough for one day as it was.

Instead, he turned the topic back to his original statement. “You know as well as I that the cryopods simply suspend us. It’s not an actual sleep. Go rest. All the Paladins have gone already.”

“They have had a long day,” Allura admitted, glancing over at him. “I must admit, I am surprised that they managed to form Voltron. I had hoped, but father and the other Paladins were all friends for so long before Voltron. These five…”

“Are young. Are new at this. Have just discovered that their species isn’t alone in the universe. They need some shaping up, but I have a good feeling about this group.” He eyed her and nodded towards the door. “Of course, they’ll be useless if their Princess doesn’t get a full four hours of sleep tonight. It’s important to rest well.”

A small, sad, smile appeared on her face and she finally listened, stepping down from the platform and holding her hand out to the floor. At first, he was confused, but then the four little mice scurried up onto her shoulders. Huh, Coran thought they were still in the kitchen gorging themselves on food goo.

Allura followed him up to the residential area of the castle quietly. They were a few floors up from where the Paladins were sleeping, but that was only proper, since she was the Princess. Propriety and all.

“Coran?” she spoke up, her voice almost hesitant.

“Yes, Princess?”

She bit her lip and fiddled with her hands for a moment. “When father put me to sleep, he said that if all went well he’d be seeing me soon, what did he mean by that?” She looked up at him with hopeful eyes, as if Coran was simply hiding Alfor somewhere in the castle to surprise her.

He sighed. “Your father had hoped that he’d be able to defeat Zarkon and put an end to the war with the Galra. I was to fly the castle to a safe location that only he and I knew about, and he would come to wake us. He wanted me to stay with you, should the worst happen.” Coran didn’t necessarily  _ agree _ with Alfor’s decisions in the end, but he had gone along with it all, including creating the AI, just in case.

Allura nodded her head sadly. “And it did.”

“For your father and Altea, yes.” There was no making nice of that. It was a horrible, brutal, honest truth, but one that couldn’t ignore. “However, this war is not over yet. It won’t be easy, but we’re still here.”

They both stopped outside of the room that had belonged to Allura all her life. She took a deep breath and forced a smile on her face. “Thank you, Coran.” She slipped inside of her room, the mice waving at him from her shoulder.

Coran waited a moment before continuing down the hall, hesitating when he walked by one not far from Allura. The temptation to go inside was so strong, but he decided not to. It would be up to Allura if she wanted to seal the room off (which meant that the door would disappear until it was unsealed), or if she wanted to go in to sort through her father’s things.

He entered his familiar room that looked exactly the same as the last time he had seen it. To him, that felt like a day ago, and it was absolutely mind boggling to know that it had been 5,000 decaphoebs ago. Everything had been sealed tight, so there wasn’t even any dust.

He looked at the pictures that he kept up on his shelves with a sad smile, trailing from the one of him holding up a younger Allura, to the one of him with Alfor, and finally, to the one of him with Melenor and Allura as a baby.

_ “I’m going to steal your wife and daughter, Alfor. They’re simply adorable.” _

It was a joke back then, but Coran knew that he was the only thing Allura had now. “Alfor, Melenor, I promise that I will do everything in my power to help her.”

It was honestly the least he could do.

…

Allura tapped in the sequence to lock her door behind her, and then leaned against the cold, metal frame as she took in the sight of her room. It was exactly how she had left it, with not a thing out of place. It didn’t look like the ruins of an ancient, dead civilization. In a way though, it was.

She inhaled sharply as she made her way over to the desk she kept in her room for her studies, picking up the tiny projector that was there before making her way back over to her bed.

The mice scuttled off of her shoulders as she sat, staying close by. Allura was so grateful for them, because she didn’t want to be alone. There was no father that she could run to now when she had nightmares, and Coran was going to be so busy with the castle.

Allura pressed a button, and a still holograph appeared before her, a 3D rendering of her father and mother.

Tears welled up with Allura’s eyes as she stared at them, looking from the bright blue eyes that she inherited from her father, to her mother’s dark pink ones.

_ “Father,” she asked once when she was younger, “who was mother mourning? She’s always wearing pink in every picture.” _

_ Alfor smiled at her sadly. “I’ll tell you someday, my daughter. Just not today.” _

She never found out why her mother dutifully wore the colour of mourning rather than the aquas, whites, and golds associated with Altean royalty.

A sob escaped Allura, and she clapped her hand over her mouth, the mice squeaking around her. Tears flowed down her cheeks. Perhaps she could ask her father’s AI, but it wasn’t the same. He was gone. Altea was gone. The memorial where her mother was put to rest was gone.

She and Coran were entirely alone in the universe, and it was all because of Zarkon.

As quickly as the sorrow came, it gave way to a deep, burning anger. Her eyes narrowed, and she practically snarled at the projection before her. “Don’t worry father, mother. I  _ will _ make Zarkon and the Galra  _ pay _ for what they’ve done, if it’s the last thing I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Though the action in this is heavily similar to the show, I really wanted to dig into their thoughts here. I don't really have much else to add, since it's pretty straightforward. Again, I promise that this is going to deviate more, but that comes a little bit later on. The foundation of Voltron was pretty good, it's later on when things got crazy.
> 
> Let me know what you think! Any little comment helps!
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> **Chapter Edited By:[Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon) & [MsBlueBell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsBluebell/)**


	5. Some Assembly Required

The beds in the castle were surprisingly comfortable, the mattresses shifting to his form to give him the best sleep possible. Hunk honestly felt like he could just lay there for a week. It was a small comfort to his homesickness. It allowed him to have happy dreams about passing all his tests, his family cheering him on proudly, because his older brother and sister, while knowing he was a good engineer, doubted he could make it in the Garrison. He was too soft, they said. Too kind to make it in such a place. Well he showed them wrong in his dreams.

What he didn’t appreciate was a loud alarm abruptly waking him from his sleep, causing him to roll out of his bed and slam into the floor with a groan. It wasn’t the first time Hunk had been awoken by alarms, the Garrison did emergency drills fairly regularly, but holy moly, he was tired.  
  
Hunk groaned, not having any way to check how long it was. It didn’t feel like he was asleep that long.  
  
Still, alarms were bad things, so he pushed himself up and stumbled towards the door, only to trip over the blankets twisted at his feet. Hunk groaned loudly. Yeah, this was going to be a long day.  
  
…  
  
“No. No please we’re from a peaceful planet.”  
  
“You’ll be our greatest weapon.”

“No! Please no!”  
  
Shiro grunted as he lifted himself into another push-up. His muscles ached and pulled with every movement, the painkillers Coran had given him the night before not anywhere near as effective as his medicine on Earth. Though, to be fair, he assumed that his illness wasn’t something that Alteans had to contend with, so they wouldn’t have something specific for it. It also didn’t work as well as whatever steroid-like stuff the Galra gave him.  
  
He didn’t know how he remembered that they kept giving him something, just that they did. There was a reason they wanted him to live, he just couldn’t remember what.  
  
Shiro shook his head and did another push-up. The physical pain and straining muscles were better than seeing glowing yellow eyes, twisting black-purple magic, and sharp blades in his sleep. He tried to sleep. He really did, but he kept waking up, throat raw from yelling, arm outreached for an invisible enemy, glowing vibrantly.  
  
Shiro was glad that either the others were dead asleep, or the walls were thick enough to muffle his yelling. He shuddered to think about what might have happened if Keith heard his frantic cries. He would have come running, and then what?  
  
It made him want to throw up.  
  
In a frantic attempt to erase those thoughts from inside his head, Shiro suited up in his armour and started exercising. He knew that the energy from his arm still came through the Kevlar-like material of his armour, but at least it was out of sight.  
  
The sudden blaring alarm startled Shiro, nearly making him topple over as Allura’s voice echoed through the intercom system. “Everybody up! Zarkon's attacking!”  
  
His pulse raced. No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening. Not now. They weren’t ready for him yet. Not by a long shot.  
  
Shiro ran, hoping against all hope that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded.  
  
…  
  
There was too much energy in the castle, and it left Keith feeling a little wired. He was so tired, but he also couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t intense like being electrocuted or anything like that, it was subtler, like the barest brush against his skin, but he still noticed it.  
  
Keith wasn’t too worried about it, because the same thing happened to him when he first moved back into the shack on his father’s (well, his now) property. He got used to it eventually, though it didn’t help his admittedly odd sleeping patterns. School and the Garrison were good for him in the sense that it kept him on a firm sleep schedule, because if left to his own devices, he was more likely to take random naps during the day, and only sleep a few hours at night. His father used to affectionately tell him that he was like a cat that way, especially since he loved sleeping in warm places and bundled up with ridiculous amounts of blankets and pillows.  
  
He really needed to look into finding more. The bed was comfy, it just wasn’t…secure enough. Keith slept best when he was basically inside of a blanket fort for whatever reason.  
  
A yawn escaped Keith’s lips, because he really actually did want to go to sleep. He was so tired after yesterday, but the energy was just a little too much for him. He never understood why people claimed it was so hard to see at night, because it all looked pretty clear to him. That said, it was a bit weird that his eyes felt funny, and he was kind of only seeing grey out of one eye, so that might be a bad thing.  
  
Oh.  
  
Keith groaned and sat up in his bed, reaching under the pillow for the knife that had been his constant companion all his life. It had been difficult to keep with him from foster home to foster home, and he got really good really early on about hiding it. Especially when he ended up in the group home at the end.  
  
Anything left unattended was fair game at the group home. If something was important, you kept that with you at all times. He’d learned that the hard way when the nicest pair of shoes he had were stolen, and he had to deal with the uncomfortable pair that just didn’t fit right that he was given.  
  
He pulled the knife out of its sheath, using the reflective surface to stare at himself. He’d never seen another knife that quite looked like his, not made of a metal that looked borderline like the surface of a mirror, and definitely not one that could cut through so many things so easily. Keith learned to be careful with it very early on, his father made sure of that.  
  
That being said, he was also too lazy to get up and stumble into the bathroom to fix the issue at hand.  
  
Keith grimaced a bit when he saw a circle of grey on the white of his eye, leaving part of his dark violet iris exposed. He reached up with his free hand to push the contact lens back in place, once again making his eyes a plain dark grey. It wasn’t that he needed them for sight, his vision was fine, he just needed them.  
  
He could almost hear Shiro lecturing him about how dangerous it was to leave them in when he slept, but what else was he supposed to do? Keith hadn’t packed the case they went in, nor his contact solution. Coran told them all about the castle’s automatic cleaning system when Hunk noted that nothing was dusty, so he didn’t want them to end up vanishing.  
  
Everyone else already didn’t like him, and Lance seemed to take every opportunity to nitpick at him, so he didn’t want his weird-ass eyes to be another distraction. He had to deal with that once before, and once was enough. Even if the contacts were starting to hurt a bit.  
  
Keith sighed as he stared at his knife, eyes straying to the hilt when an odd feeling overtook him. He remembered the strange, Galra symbol on the wall, and if he wasn’t so tired, he’d probably be able to piece everything together about why that was significant.  
  
Then the alarms of the castle startled him out of his daze.  
  
“The Castle's about to be destroyed!” Allura cried out, and Keith leapt from his bed, grabbing his jacket and running. This was exactly why he left his boots on and made sure he was ready to go, because if Allura’s tone was anything to go by, whatever was happening was bad.  
  
…  
  
Despite just how tired she was, Pidge found that she couldn’t sleep that night. Then again, she could never sleep properly the first couple nights in a new place, at least not when she was alone.  
  
At first, she genuinely tried to get some sleep, because she did need it. After a while though, Pidge gave up. Her mind was running a mile a minute, and she just couldn’t sleep.  
  
Instead, she gathered up Rover and headed to the medbay. The room looked a lot like the sleeping chamber where they’d found Allura and Coran, but these pods were meant to actively heal people, and then open up when they were okay. The technology was absolutely mind blowing.  
  
Pidge wasn’t there to study that (well, not this time). Instead, she wanted to stay there for when the prisoners that they freed from Sendak’s ship woke up. Apparently, Coran was able to send a signal to the pod, controlling it remotely to get it to the castle once everything was safe, however that worked. Pidge would have to look into that too.  
  
On one hand, she was glad that they would all be okay, she wasn’t heartless, but on the other, she wished that they’d just wake up so that she could talk to them. At least one of them seemed to recognize Shiro, so maybe they would know something about Matt or her dad.  
  
In the meantime, she worked at creating an adapter that would be able to charge electronics with the castle’s power. She was running a few simulations with Rover when she apparently fell asleep hunched over her laptop.  
  
Pidge didn’t remember falling asleep, but she definitely remembered waking up to Allura’s yell of, “Go, go, go! We need Voltron now!"  
  
“What the—“ Pidge looked around wildly. Everyone in the pods seemed to be fine, but there were alarms blaring. It took her a second to realize what was going on before she launched herself to her feet, casting a wild glance to her laptop. She was fairly certain that she figured out the conversion from hours to vargas (as Coran called it last night), and had to groan because not even four hours had gone by since they had all gone off to sleep.

The Galra really, really sucked.  
  
“Rover, stay here and keep an eye on them,” she instructed the little drone, who beeped in response. With a nod, and an aching back from being hunched over her laptop, Pidge left the room in a hurry.  
  
…  
  
Allura awoke that morning feeling refreshed and positively brimming with determination. Somehow, she managed to get an entire night’s sleep despite everything that had happened.   
  
A long time ago, she used to struggle to wake up early, and would have to be harped at again and again by people, but now, as soon as she regained consciousness, she was ready to get started, pushing herself out of her bed and towards her washroom.  
  
Her father, her people, hadn’t died for her to loiter around or be lazy.  
  
She was quick to go through her normal morning routine, because yes, there was so much to do, but she also needed to be presentable. She was a Princess, and she needed to look the part.  
  
“Good morning, friends,” Allura spoke to the mice, and held out her hand to allow them to scurry up her arms. “Are you ready?” They all squeaked in confirmation, steadying themselves on her shoulders as she headed out of the room.  
  
She was more than pleased to see that Coran was up and ready for the day as much as she was. She was completely unimpressed that not one of the Paladins appeared to be up. That was absolutely unacceptable. They did a good job the day before, but they were not allowed to be a bunch of lazy slobs.  
  
That led to the situation at hand, where she held the microphone that was attached to the intercom system, ‘testing’ the system to get the Paladins up.  
  
“Hurry!” she yelled into the microphone. “We can’t survive much longer!” Where were they? They should have been there by now. The real Paladins would have never made them wait this long.  
  
“You’ve got to sell it a bit more,” Coran insisted. He held his hand out, wiggling his fingers a bit until she handed him the microphone. Allura instantly regretted her decision when he started yelling into it dramatically. "Oh, no! Allura is dead! Aaaah! it's horrible! Her head fell off! Wait! What? Her severed head is trying to speak to me! What is it, Allura's head? What are your final words?"  
  
“What the—?” Allura turned to look behind her, and her eyes met Shiro’s startled gaze as his eyes flickered from her, to Coran, and back again. Briefly, she let her gaze wander, pleased to see that Shiro was already suited up. A split second later, Keith practically flew into the room, and very nearly crashed into Shiro, but managed to stop himself. Pidge stumbled in after him, eyes about ready to blink shut again. Hunk appeared soon after, still clad in the yellow pajamas that were left in his room for him.  
  
“Coran,” she called out to her advisor. It took everything she had not to yell at the Paladins, so she kept herself focused on him instead.  
  
"Oh, yes, Princess, I'm listening,” he replied, still very clearly lost in his dramatic act where her head fell off.  
  
"It's over."  
  
"Oh, I know! Uaaaagh! If only Voltron had been formed..." He twisted a bit, and perked right up when he saw four of the five people they waited for. “Oh!”  
  
Shiro’s brow twitched slightly, and he took a slow breath as if he needed to keep from yelling at them. "I guess this isn't an actual attack."  
  
Allura bristled at his words. “No, it isn’t, and it’s a good thing, because it took you…” She looked over at the other Altean. “Coran?”  
  
"Seventy-five thousand degrees,” Coran replied, and then did a double take at the device that was in his hand. “Oh, sorry. No, this is a meat thermometer."  
  
She huffed angrily, nostrils flaring. “However long it was, it was too long! You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon. Look at you! Only Shiro is in uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are your Bayards? And where is Lance?"  
  
“Hey!” Hunk protested with an infuriatingly loud yawn. “You guys got to sleep for 5,000 years, man. Friday night, I was on Earth. Now, I've flown through space, fought some evil alien named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird Castle. That's a lot to process in, uh... I don't know. What day is today?"  
  
"It's the seventh quintant of the Spicolian movement. Rest day!" Coran paused. “Well, not for us of course, but in general. And for what it’s worth, that 5,000 years didn’t count as rest. Instead, we both got a nice, regular, healthy sleep of four vargas, as should all of you.”  
  
Keith blinked his big eyes at them and then asked, “Pidge, do you know how to convert vargas to hours?”  
  
“Already did it, and they’re basically the same,” Pidge replied.  
  
“Four hours?” Shiro asked, and his eyebrows shot up as he looked from one Paladin to the next. “No wonder everyone’s so tired, and Lance is probably still asleep.” He met Allura’s gaze. “Princess, humans need seven to nine hours…vargas of sleep to function properly. Some can run on less, but it catches up. Not only that, but people the age the Paladins are generally need even more!”  
  
“We only had four hours?” Hunk asked, genuinely distressed about this revelation.  
  
Allura felt her anger abate a bit, disbelief taking its place. “Your species needs to sleep for seven vargas?”  
  
“Closer to nine in their case,” Shiro confirmed, nodding at the Paladins.  
  
“That…that’s completely unacceptable!” Allura burst out, unable to help herself. What kind of species needed to sleep that long? Well, she knew that Galra actually slept a lot more than Alteans, but that was more in multiple, short bursts. “We simply cannot waste that much time!”  
  
Pidge was taken back, Hunk still looked ready to cry, Keith’s hand was clenched and he was rubbing his thumb against his finger, and Shiro…well, Shiro looked incredibly unimpressed.  
  
“Princess, we understand just how important that the fight against Zarkon is,” he said sternly, taking a step forward. Allura almost took a step back. “But, if you want functioning Paladins, we all need proper rest.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. “You both seem to have gotten a full-night’s sleep. If you want us to be as ready to go as you are, when we have the opportunity to do so, at least let us get the bare minimum we need to function properly.”  
  
Allura shrank back a little bit. Shiro was right, of course. She hadn’t known that humans needed at least double the amount of sleep that Alteans did. She hadn’t even thought to ask, which made her burn with shame, because one thing that her father told her again and again is to not assume things about different species.  
  
Yet, she didn’t want to back down. They were awake, wasn’t that good enough?

She cast her eyes from Paladin to Paladin. Hunk blinked his eyes rapidly as he swayed on the spot. Pidge now had his eyes closed and leaned against Keith. Keith looked about ready to jump out of his skin like a skittish leoplordeon. It was never nice to mess with those.

Allura bit the inside of her cheek, and tried to keep a straight face. She knew that Shiro was right, but she had to save face, didn’t she? They would never respect her if she just caved in.  
  
“If you must go, go,” she snapped, and forced herself not to grimace. “I expect you back here in four hours suited up and ready to go.” She turned away and headed towards the controls. They might as well get the castle back in order.  
  
“That means you too, Shiro,” she heard Keith say from behind her as the four of them left the room. “Sleep.” She didn’t hear Shiro’s response, as the door slid shut behind them.  
  
Allura let out a deep breath, her shoulders slumped down, and she wanted to scream.  
  
Coran’s hand landed on her shoulder gently. “You didn’t know, Allura. We’ve never met humans before.”  
  
“It was still humiliating!” She shrugged his arm off. “I won’t mess up again like that in front of them.” She didn’t want to hear any kind or encouraging words from Coran, or from the mice for that matter. In fact…  
  
“In four vargas, wake them up,” she told the mice. “Start with Lance.” At least everyone else showed up, even if they were exhausted.  
  
They’d never save the universe with this group of Paladins, but she would do everything in her power to make sure that they were ready to take on Zarkon.  
  
Her people deserved that at the very least.  
  
…  
  
“Is he okay?”  
  
“Yeah, he’s just, like, super hard to wake up, ya know? We got in trouble at the Garrison for being late a few times.”  
  
“The jerk! No wonder he didn’t hear the alarm earlier!” There was a tug by his head, and suddenly, Lance could hear a lot better. He didn’t appreciate it. “These are borderline noise cancelling!”  
  
The voices around him really annoyed Lance. Why couldn’t they just leave him alone? They had done so much the day before, and deserved a bit of a lie-in, if you asked him.  
  
“That’s not going to work.” That was Hunk’s voice.  
  
“Well, if he’s not up and ready soon, I think Allura’s going to breathe fire.” Who was that again? He really liked that voice. Lance felt something tug at the sleep mask he found. “Lance? You need to wake up.”  
  
Slowly, he blinked open his eyes, and while one of them was still covered, the other focused on the person that leaned over him just slightly. Still far enough away for it to not be creepy or anything.  
  
Oh, wow. “Hi gorgeous,” he muttered and his eyes slipped shut again. He was truly blessed that day to wake up to black hair and—  
  
There was a loud snort, a cough that was very clearly trying to hide a laugh, and a small, confused, “What the fuck?”  
  
That was when Lance’s brain actually woke up, and he realized exactly what he said, and who he said it to. His eyes snapped open again as he shot up and flailed his arms around. “Not you! I meant—I thought—I thought you were Allura! Yeah! Allura!” What the cheese was wrong with his brain? He did not think Keith fucking Kogane was gorgeous.  
  
Keith, dressed in his red, white, and black armour, blinked down at him a couple times, the pure picture of confusion. “I…don’t look anything like Allura.”  
  
Okay, that was an extremely good point and Lance’s panicked mind kind of kicked himself over using that excuse. Keith had black hair that almost seemed to shine purple in the right light, while Allura had white hair that almost seemed to sparkle. Keith’s skin was pale and creamy, where Allura’s was rich and dark. Keith’s eyes were deep and dark, where Allura’s were bright and vibrant. Both sets of eyes were still so pretty though.  
  
“Sorry, sorry, you both got really pretty eyes,” he blurted out, as if that helped anything. Oh god, what did he just say? “You know, for a guy. Not that Allura’s a guy, but still has eyes pretty for a guy like you. Wait no. Allura’s eyes are pretty and yours are like hers. Not that you’re a girl. You know what I meant?” He paused and stared with wide eyes. “What are you doing? Get out of my room! Out!”  
  
He practically launched himself out of bed, and promptly realized that both Hunk and Pidge, also dressed in their armour, were in the room to witness his spectacular failure. Pidge wasn’t even trying to hide how amused he was, and while Hunk was making a valiant effort, he looked like he was about to burst.

Keith still just looked confused. “What?”  
  
“Out!” Lance shoved him towards the door. “Out! What kind of heathens come into someone’s room without permission? Didn’t your parents teach you better?”  
  
Hunk’s amusement immediately vanished, and Lance felt like slamming his head against the wall when he saw Keith confusion give way to annoyance. It wasn’t exactly common knowledge around the Garrison that Keith was a foster kid, it was just something that Lance happened to find out about him, because he paid attention to him. Because he was his rival, so of course he did.  
  
Okay, maybe in detention once, Lance had to help organize a bunch of paper files (which, why did those exist), and Professor Hedricks had to step out for a minute at the same time Lance happened to have Keith’s file in his hands. He was a nosy little shit at the time, and Keith was his rival.  
  
Admittedly, Lance did kind of regret looking at it, but it wasn’t like he’d ever use that information against him. He knew that some people thought he was an asshole, but he would never be that kind of asshole. Though he did tell Hunk about the whole thing, and while Hunk could be an awful gossip, he usually kept his mouth shut for the things that really counted.  
  
“Sorry, sorry! I didn’t—my brain’s dead, please get out.” Lance shoved Keith again against his better instincts.  
  
“Allura wants us all in the command area soon,” Keith replied, still annoyed, but hey, he didn’t look like he was going to punch Lance, so, bonus! “She woke us up four hours ago, and you slept through it, so don’t be late or she may just kill you.” With that, he turned on his own volition and walked out the door, the sudden movement causing him to flop down to the floor.  
  
“Oh my god, Lance!” Pidge burst out, laughing so loudly that he had to take his glasses off and wipe away his tears.  
  
“You’re a mess,” Hunk added, unable to hide his own amusement anymore.  
  
Lance groaned, not moving from his spot on the floor. “Get out.” Good god, he wanted to disappear into the floor.  
  
He just hoped that the rest of the day was going to go better.  
  
Spoiler alert: it did not.  
  
Okay, maybe Lance showed up a couple minutes later than the others told him he should, but he didn’t expect Allura to be in such a bad mood. Like, they had to eat to function too. It wasn’t that odd a concept. He knew for a fact that Alteans had to eat too.  
  
“Forgive the Princess,” Coran said when she left the dining room. “She’s under a lot of stress right now.”

Which, okay, that was fair, but she didn’t have to take it out on them, did she?  
  
Allura waited for them all back on the bridge (which was an odd name for the command center on a castle, but who was he to judge), her lips pressed into a firm line, brow furrowed so much that there was a deep line down the middle of her forehead.  
  
“I know there was some…miscommunication earlier,” Allura said, “but you must understand the stakes of our mission.” Allura held up her hand and a monitor appeared by it. She pressed a few buttons as she spoke. "Over the last 5,000 years, the Castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations.”  
  
Lance looked up as a massive star chart, like the one she used to show them where the lions were, appeared around them. The little blue dots on it slowly turned red. Then they started turning purple, leaving only a few red and blue dots behind. “We must assume that the beacons that have been turned off are either under Zarkon’s control, or have been entirely destroyed. Some of the areas indicated in blue may very well be controlled as well, they just never got a signal out.” She met their eyes one at a time. “We must assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe."  
  
She swiped her hand through the air, and everything flew by them dizzyingly fast. “The Blue Lion updated the systems when Lance connected her back to the castle, so I was able to locate Earth.” The familiar swirls of the milky way galaxy were blissfully blue, as were the areas around it, though there was a distinct line of purple that, all things considered, was scarily close to it. “Given that the Galra know that’s where the Blue Lion was, an attack on your planet is inevitable."  
  
Lance’s stomach dropped in horror, because they had left that Galra ship back pretty close to their own solar system before going into the wormhole. Who was to say that it didn’t just turn around? Well, they had done a lot of damage to it, so maybe it would have gone for repairs instead?

“Oh no,” Hunk breathed out, his eyes going wide as he thought of his parents and siblings back home.  
  
“Exactly.” Allura fixed them with a stern look. “Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, to work as a proper team, so we can begin fighting Zarkon." Her eyes drifted to Shiro, waiting for his reaction.  
  
Shiro wasn’t going to protest this time. Instead, he nodded his head. “The Princess is right. Let's get to our Lions and start training." Though he actually had no idea what that training would entail. Learning how to maneuver around one another, and how to form Voltron when they needed to, really seemed like a good plan.  
  
“Wait, no!” Pidge protested, looking up at Shiro with a frown. “I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship."  
  
“Ah, negative, Number Five.” Pidge looked at Coran curiously at that. “I have you ranked by height.” Because that explained everything. “I checked on them earlier, and the prisoners need to remain in the cryo-replenishers—the healing pods—until tomorrow.”  
  
Pidge’s shoulders slumped, but she really couldn’t protest. Instead, she nodded her head. As much as she wanted to sit around and wait for them to wake up, she’d probably go crazy in the meantime so she might as well go along with everyone else. It was better than having an alien princess breathing down her neck.  
  
“So, uh, how do we get to the lions from here?” Hunk asked, holding his hand up in the air. “Cause, like, if there’s an emergency that’s pretty far to run, and they’re all in different spots here.”  
  
Allura suddenly smiled brightly, and the contrast of her disposition slightly alarmed Hunk, and a part of him was kind of terrified and wished that he hadn’t asked.  
  
She walked to the wall behind them, and motioned towards five pillars. “Press your hands against the surface here, and get to your lions.”  
  
Keith was the first to move. He pressed his hand against the first pillar to the right. The surface of the wall split open, revealing what looked like an elevator with a red light. That was simple and convenient enough. Keith had to admit, though he was a bit surprised that they didn’t just have like some weird portal or something. The Alteans seemed like a pretty straightforward bunch.  
  
The elevator came to a stop, and the second Keith stepped out of it, he realized that he was entirely wrong about that assessment, because hanging in front of him was a fucking zip-line.  
  
Keith turned to the elevator behind him, but it closed and wouldn’t open again. He sighed and took a step back before leaping up into the air and grabbing a hold of the zip-line.  
  
Lance let out a whoop as he swung down the zip-line. It was absolutely ridiculous, but at the same time, was the exact burst of adrenaline that he needed. Everyone else got that earlier, and honestly, Lance was completely embarrassed about the fact that he slept through an alarm (he definitely wouldn’t do that again).  
  
He narrowed his eyes as the end of the sloped hall neared. It took him a moment to realize that there was a goddamn tunnel there. What the fresh hell? It didn’t take a genius to realize that just jumping down from the zip-line would probably make him stumble face-first into the tunnel, so he was going to have to fling himself into it.  
  
Good thing that Lance had amazing aim.  
  
He swung himself forward, managing to slip into the tunnel, falling down it like it was a wild slide.  
  
Pidge yelped when her foot caught the edge of the tunnel, flipping over so that she was sliding down it face-first. With the green lights flickering past her eyes, she kind of felt like she was going to hurl. (She really hoped that Hunk was having a better time than her.)  
  
The end of the tunnel was in sight, and panic erupted in her because what if she fell face-first into something that wasn’t meant to?  
  
She braced herself, yelping when she fell straight down and into what looked like a speeder of sorts. That would have been fine, except she landed on the controls and practically launched the speeder forward. It had to be on some sort of auto pilot, because it kept going as Pidge twisted herself around and sat up properly.

Hunk held on tightly to the little speeder thing that he had fallen into, glad that something ended up going his way. First he fell off of the zip-line and had to carefully slide down the sloping hall, and then he ended up stumbling face-first through the tunnel. By sheer dumb luck was he able to right himself before he was tossed into the speeder.  
  
He grunted and leaned back a bit against the seat as the speeder zoomed ahead, on some form of auto pilot. He looked around at all the lights and halls, and had to wonder where the hell he was going.  
  
They put the lions into their individual hangars the night before, and Hunk was very sure that he didn’t have to walk this far to get back up to the main part of the castle. It felt like he was on a rollercoaster of sorts that took him up and down and back and forth over a very short distance. What kind of engineer or architect put this monstrosity together? Were they drunk?  
  
Wait, hadn’t Coran said that his grandfather made the castle?  
  
That…actually explained a lot. Already, Hunk was pretty sure that Coran had a screw or two loose. 

Finally, the tunnel that he was driving through opened up, and for a moment, Hunk could see Yellow, who sat up high on a platform that definitely hadn’t been there the day before. Then he went into yet another elevator and started to rise up, speeder and all.  
  
Shiro was more than a little bit perplexed by the entire situation of getting to the lions, because as far as he remembered, Black stayed in the tallest tower of the castle while the other four stayed down low in different hangars. It was smart to not keep all the super weapons in one spot, but he didn’t understand how he was getting to his. All of the tunnels went down, down, down, and Black definitely wasn’t down anywhere.  
  
The only thing that eventually made sense was the elevator trip up to Black’s platform, but how he got there was a messy blur. What mattered was that by the time he got to the top of the platform, Black had leaned down, and the speeder went right inside of the lion before coming to a stop.  
  
For a moment, Shiro waited, but then he climbed out and made his way up to the cockpit. He took a seat, and asked, “Ready to go?”

Black was, if the loud roar they let out was any indication. Shiro guided the lion outside, landing on the ground where the other four were already waiting.

“There you are!” Lance called out to him. “We thought we were going to have to send someone in after you!”  
  
“So uh, did anyone else find that whole thing really, really weird?” Hunk piped out. “Like, super weird? Can’t they park these things closer to the bridge?”

“I thought they were,” Pidge admitted. “I really don’t remember walking that far last night. There was also no platform in Green’s hangar when I left her there.”  
  
“Alright guys, let’s focus,” Shiro spoke up before Pidge and Hunk started to make plans to change the castle. They needed to find a better way to get to their lions, but they’d deal with that later. The question was, though, how were they supposed to get in sync with one another to form Voltron? “Let's just fly in tight formation until we're totally in sync."  
  
That was a good plan, right?  
  
God, Shiro could actually feel Keith’s skeptical look from there.  
  
A screen popped up in front of him, and for a moment, Shiro wondered if Keith actually started a video transmission just to give him the look. It wasn’t Keith though. Instead, Allura appeared, and she looked a lot happier than earlier. "Feel the bond with your Lions and your fellow pilots until five become one unit and you form Voltron!"  
  
Well, that actually…wasn’t helpful at all.  
  
They flew in the air, and Shiro was pleasantly surprised how quickly they managed to get into formation. Red and Green flanked him on either side and a bit behind him, while Blue and Yellow were slightly behind them. There was excited chatter, and he took that as a good thing. Everyone seemed so excited and positive, surely that would help them form Voltron?  
  
As it turned out, that didn’t seem to be the case. As time went by and nothing happened, the chatter died down.  
  
“Am I the only one who’s still pretending to be excited?” Hunk asked suddenly.  
  
“Clearly, this isn’t working,” Shiro admitted. As much as he loved flying, there was only so much they could do while flying around in circles. “Let’s set down for a little bit.”  
  
A screen popped up in front of him, showing Keith. “Maybe we should be building Voltron from the ground up.”  
  
His eyebrows rose up. “What do you mean?” He was open to any suggestions, but had no idea what his brother meant.  
  
"I mean, let's try literally building Voltron, like, stacking on top of each other." He motioned with his hands, stacking them one on top of the other.  
  
“Like a cheerleader pyramid?” Lance asked skeptically. Judging from the way Keith’s eyes shifted from Shiro’s screen to something else, he was betting that Lance activated a video feed with him.  
  
Keith dropped his hands, a scowl on his face. “You got a better idea?”  
  
Nope, no. Shiro was shutting this down now. "It's worth a try." The idea was simple enough, two legs, two arms, and then the head.  
  
Except, somehow, they ended up with Blue and Green on the bottom, Red teetering awkwardly as she stood between the two of them, unstable due to the height difference, Black half on top of Red, half on the other two, and Yellow balanced precariously on the top.  
  
“Hunk, what are you doing?” Shiro deadpanned. Hunk was a bright boy, an engineer at that. There was absolutely no reason for him to goof this up. Albeit, getting frazzled by new alien technology could do that to someone.

“What do you mean?” he asked, sounding genuinely confused.  
  
"You're supposed to be the leg,” Shiro explained, keeping his voice even. “Down on the left of Blue.” Now that he thought about it, Blue wasn’t even in the right spot, was she? She was on the left when she was the right leg.  
  
"What? No. No, no, no. I'm pretty sure that when we did it last time, I was the head. Right?"  
  
Shrio just stared out the window, not quite sure how to respond to that. Black was no help at all. They were actually amused. Now he had to wonder if the lions decided to purposely mess with them. They had been inactive for 5,000 years. Maybe Yellow was the one who told Hunk he was the head.  
  
"You yelled, 'I'm a leg!'" Lance said to Hunk. He sounded completely exasperated. As much as he struck Shiro as a goofball, it was good to see that he was at least going to try to take this seriously.  
  
"Shiro's the head,” Keith pointed out.  
  
"All the time?" Hunk asked.  
  
“I’m actually face palming right now, Hunk,” Pidge spoke up. “You’re actually making me do this.”  
  
Good fucking god, Shiro needed to get used to working with teenagers rather than other adults. Patience yields focus. "Let's just try it my way for now."  
  
There was a pause and then, “Okay, but next time I call head."  
  
The lions rearranged themselves so that Blue was on the right with Red perched on top of her, and Yellow was on the left with Green beside Red.  
  
“Okay. Arms and legs…and I’ll form the head,” Shiro said as he looked them all over, carefully moving Black down to balance on Red and Green. Once they were steady, he spoke to everyone else. “Feel the bonds with your Lions. Now, channel your energy into forming Voltron. Focus...focus..."  
  
They waited there for a while, and Shiro knew that everyone tried to focus Or at least, he assumed they were. The problem was that absolutely nothing was happening. “Is everyone bonding and focusing?"  
  
"Why was this so much easier before?" Lance whined across the comms.  
  
Shiro pressed his fingers into the corners of his eyes and took a deep breath. “Let’s take a break,” he suggested, because he was going to lose his shit at this rate. The others seemed to agree as they started to chat amongst themselves again.  
  
Keith once again popped up on his screen, and didn’t the little shit look amused beyond anything else. “Patience yields focus, Shiro.”  
  
“I’m going to strangle you!” Shiro burst out before he could stop himself. Everyone else went completely silent, and an absolutely infuriating grin appeared on Keith’s face.

Little brothers were the absolute worst. Shiro should have left him in juvie. Damn his soft heart that wanted to help that lonely, little, wide-eyed boy with so much talent despite the fact that every person in his life tried to put him down.  
  
Allura’s face suddenly replaced Keith. She didn’t look at all perturbed by his outburst or their lack of progress. "Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to help. Yesterday, you weren't able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle."  
  
That was true, though Shiro could feel his stomach sinking a bit. “Yes…”  
  
“Perfect!” She looked positively bubbly. “I need to run a diagnostic test on all of the Castle's defenses. This should help!" Her face vanished.  
  
“Is anyone else getting a bad feeling?” Pidge spoke up nervously.  
  
Then lasers started flying from the castle, slamming into the ground around them. Immediately, they scattered, dodging the beams of energy that flew at them.  
  
Keith looked up at the castle incredulously. Lance yelled at them all to move over the comms, but he promptly ignored that, focusing on the line that he knew was open to the castle. “Allura! What the fuck?”  
  
Her face appeared on a screen, an eyebrow raised up. “We don’t seem to have a translation for that word. But I’m running a diagnostic test on the Castle defenses and inspiring you! I believe in you, Paladins!” She smiled at them brightly, and it was almost sinister in Keith’s mind. “Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!"  
  
Dear sweet fuck, what had they gotten themselves into? How was this any kind of logical?

Keith looked over as Blue suddenly changed direction. Lance’s voice rang across the comms as he exclaimed, "Oh, forget this! I'm heading back to the Castle!"  
  
That didn’t end up working too well as, unlike before, Blue was thrown back by the particle barrier.  
  
“Have mercy on us!” Hunk cried out pleadingly.  
  
"You think Zarkon is going to have mercy on you?” Allura’s sharp voice shot across the comms. “He's probably on his way right now to destroy us all!" God, did this girl ever not go at 100? Some people called Keith intense, but this was something else altogether.  
  
This definitely wasn’t going to help them form Voltron.  
  
…  
  
“Are we at full power on condenser number five yet?”  
  
“She’s coming,” Hunk said, his arms slung over the back over the couch in the lounge as they heard Coran and Allura approach. He didn’t even bother to lower his voice or hide his exhaustion.  
  
Lance groaned from where he laid out beside him. He couldn’t even try to think of some cheesy line to use on Allura.  
  
“No, still just 84 percent,” Coran answered her.  
  
Pidge glanced up at Allura, who pouted as she looked at something on her little hand-held device. Normally, Pidge would ask about it, but instead she just slumped down beside Keith, who looked less tired than Hunk or Lance, and one hundred percent more fed up.  
  
Allura perked up at the sight of them, excitement sparkling in her eyes. “You did it! You formed Voltron.”  
  
"No,” Keith answered, looking up at her. “The shooting stopped and the particle barrier shut down, so we just flew in." He shrugged.  
  
“What?” Allura demanded, entirely unimpressed.  
  
“Oh, right.” Coran laughed weakly, waving his device in front of him. “Uh, sorry, Princess. I had to turn off the Castle defenses to test the fire suppressors."  
  
There was a mechanical whirring sound as another door slid open, and Shiro’s voice called out to them. "What are you guys doing in here? We're not taking a break." He stopped in front of them, hands on his hips.  
  
“Dad found us,” Lance blurted out, which caused Keith to snort.  
  
“Shiro’s right,” Allura said, taking a step forward. “You should be training!"  
  
“We’ve been training,” Hunk stressed. He leaned up and looked towards her. “When are we going back to Earth?”  
  
That made Pidge snap up. She narrowed her eyes at him heatedly. "I'm not going back until I find my family."  
  
“We can’t go back to Earth,” Shiro said, which honestly startled all of them. “Not as we are. Earth may be very far away, but remember, we’re the Paladins of Voltron, and Zarkon is going to be focused on us.”  
  
“What does that mean?” Lance asked, his brow furrowed slightly.  
  
Keith rubbed his thumb against his index finger and said, “It means Zarkon could go after Earth to get to us.”  
  
Lance and Hunk both straightened up at that.  
  
“It’s not out of the realm of possibility,” Shiro agreed. “So the farther we stay from Earth, the better, since he’ll likely be focused on us directly. When we’re strong enough to protect Earth, when Zarkon’s weak enough, that’s when we can go back. That means learning how to fight him.”  
  
“How are we going to fight?” Lance demanded, none too impressed with the situation. He didn’t want any of these hostile aliens getting back to Earth where his family was. “We can't even figure out how to form Voltron."  
  
"Well, I'm not surprised,” Coran spoke up. “The original Paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of Yalmors linked at the ears." He motioned towards his ears, and looked quite proud of this fact as he put his hands behind his back. “And that was before they formed Voltron. After that, they were together for about 200 deca-phoebs, give or take.”  
  
“200 years?” Pidge asked, completely flabbergasted. “Humans live for max 120 years, and that’s only because of our advancements in medicine.”  
  
“Wow,” Lance scoffed, unable to help himself. “Yeah, that's definitely not us." That’s what they had to live up to? What Allura wanted them to be? Was she ever barking up the wrong tree.  
  
Coran chose to ignore him, regarding the group as a whole. "During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team, but that will only get you so far. You'll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time.” He looked around thoughtfully. “You should try working out on the training deck together."  
  
“There’s a training deck?” Hunk asked. If he was honest, he wanted them to get on with this, to do what they had to do so that they could go back home. He was already tired of this and really just wanted to see his mother again.  
  
“Yeah, cause that’s going to make us a battle-hardened team,” Lance snarked bitterly.  
  
Shiro shot him a look and said, “Come on. It’s better than just sitting around here.”  
  
Allura crossed her arms as she watched Coran lead the Paladins away. As soon as they were out of the room, her shoulders dropped and she pressed the palm of her hand to her face as she desperately tried not to scream in frustration.  
  
These Paladins were never going to come close to the past ones. Never.  
  
…  
  
The training deck was an absolutely huge room that was just as bland and white as the rest of the castle. Keith wasn’t anything close to an interior decorator, and his preference for clothing usually settled somewhere between grey and black (jackets aside), but would it have hurt the Alteans that made the ship to use more than just white?

It was kind of hard to believe that the lions were as colorful as they were. It was also sad that Keith would rather think of that when they were on an advanced, alien training deck and not actual training.

This was the kind of place where he shined. Keith always found classrooms stifling unless there was something that really caught his interest (though he kept his grades up mostly for Shiro’s sake, and maybe partially to shove it in Griffin’s face that he wasn’t at the top of the class). Practical, hands-on stuff though? That was where he was his best.  
  
Except, that was what happened with the lions earlier, and that didn’t work out too well for them, so Keith chose to be wary.  
  
Also, his annoyance with the brightness of the room probably had to do with the fact that his eyes burned a bit from his contacts. He’d have to find a way to clean them later, maybe find something to put them in.  
  
“Okay, listen up!” Coran’s voice suddenly echoed through the training deck, which caused Hunk to jump slightly. “The Paladin code demands that you put your team members' safety above your own. A swarm of drones is about to attack.” A bunch of float balls that Keith assumed were the drones zoomed out from tiny holes in the ground that covered back up.  
  
The drones circled them, and he instinctively brought his arm up, and his shield appeared. Beside him, Pidge glanced briefly at him before she did the same.  
  
“It's up to each of you to do everything you can to protect the other members of your team,” Coran finished.  
  
“Wait, wait, wait!” Hunk cried out from somewhere behind him. “What’s going on?”  
  
“Get ready,” Shiro warned them.  
  
Keith was ready, but he kind of agreed with Hunk here. If this was supposed to be a team-building exercise, they needed a little more to go on. He wasn’t sure it was addressing the issues they had either. Shiro seemed to think that this would help them though, so he’d trust him.  
  
There was a distinct sound of laser fire, and Pidge suddenly yelped as she lurched forward. Before she could growl at Hunk, who was at her back, the floor opened up beneath her and she fell with a second yelp.  
  
“What the fuck?” Keith blurted out, and had to stare at the floor she vanished through with wide eyes. It closed up and looked like part of the seamless floor again.  
  
“You need to protect your teammates, or no one will be there to protect you!” Coran cried out to him.  
  
“Round up boys!” Shiro called out, and Keith shifted so that he was side-by-side with Hunk. Okay, so their objective was to block the laser fire and trust that the person at their back would do the same. They actually did pretty well for a moment or two.  
  
It didn’t last very long.  
  
“Crap!” Lance called out, and Hunk vanished through the floor. “Oh no.”

“Huddle in,” Shiro instructed them, and Keith backed up a little more until they were in a triangle of sorts.  
  
“Time to increase intensity!” Coran cried out enthusiastically, and Keith got the odd feeling that the Altean enjoyed this a little too much.  
  
The drones fired on them rapidly to the point where it was actually worse than the sentries that fired on him in Sendak’s ship the day before. Keith didn’t focus on that though. Shiro and Lance were both counting on him to do his part.  
  
“You keeping up over there, Keith?” Lance called out to him, a bit of a challenge to his voice.  
  
His brow furrowed. What was with Lance and why did he single him out? All because Keith didn’t remember his name at first? That seemed really petty to him. "Just concentrate on keeping me safe."  
  
Lance scoffed. "Me? I own this drill. You're the one who needs to concentrate."  
  
While he was talking, the drones moved, firing at their heads instead of at their friends. Keith moved along with Shiro, but realized a split second too late that Lance was too distracted to realize what was going on.  
  
Lance yelped and out of the corner of his eye, Keith saw him pivot out of the way (poorly) instead of blocking the shot. A sting rushed up his back, and then he was falling.  
  
His stomach leapt up into his throat as he fell, his breath rushing out of him as he slammed into something padded and springy, causing him to bounce up and down for a moment.  
  
“You okay?” Hunk called out to him from the side somewhere.  
  
“You should probably move,” Pidge added.  
  
Keith blinked, a bit dazed, before he saw the ceiling above him open up. He rolled quickly out of the way just before Shiro fell where he had been a moment before. Lance hit the bottom a second later.  
  
Shiro sighed and sat up. “Everyone alright?”  
  
“That could have gone better,” Lance said as he sat up.  
  
Something hot and angry rushed through Keith. He stood up straight, and practically loomed over Lance, who still sat on the floor.  
  
“What is your problem?” he snarled at him.  
  
“What’s your problem?” Lance immediately shot back. He stood up quickly to glare at Keith.  
  
“My problem is the fact that you’ve been an asshole to me for no fucking reason!” Keith growled. His frustrations bubbled to the surface and exploded, and there was no way to put them back now.  
  
Lance didn’t back down, but an odd expression ran across his face briefly. It was like a brief flash of insecurity. Then again, maybe Keith just saw that because he wanted to. His ability to read people wasn’t exactly something that he was proud of.  
  
“We’re rivals,” Lance snapped as he recovered from whatever thoughts ran through him. “I’m sorry you’re too sensitive to take it!”  
  
“I didn’t even know you,” Keith spat back. “I remember you from the Garrison now, but I don’t know you! How the fuck could we be rivals?” He took a step towards him, and a small bit of satisfaction rushed through him when he saw Lance take half a step back. “The only person that I remember competing with over anything was James fucking Griffin and he was a complete douchebag and asshole! So if you’re trying to be like him, good fucking job, you’re one cheap shot at my dead parents away!”  
  
This time, Keith was sure he saw Lance’s expression waver. Good. Lance didn’t seem to be the same type of asshole Griffin had been for as long as Keith knew him.  
  
“That’s enough,” Shiro spoke sternly. He stepped in between them, and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “I know this is frustrating, but we have to keep our heads together.”  
  
“Coran said that we were lucky, that our will to survive is why we formed Voltron. Isn’t what he’s trying to do here the exact same thing?” Pidge questioned.  
  
Before Shiro could answer, the floor underneath them, shuddered and then they started rising up towards the ceiling. It opened, and they were back in the training room.  
  
“Well, that didn’t work out as planned,” Coran said, still sounding as chipper. “I have another idea, though it involves working in pairs.” His strange periwinkle eyes flitted from one person to the next. “Lance, I want you to stay here. Everyone else, follow me.”  
  
“Here?” Lance asked, pointing down at his feet.  
  
“Well, not there. Off that platform so we can reset it, then stand in the middle of the room. I’ll be back in just a tick.”

Lance still looked perplexed, but he did as Coran said while the rest of them followed the Altean out of the room.  
  
“Alright, now I only need two people at a time for this,” Coran explained. He grabbed ahold of Keith’s arm, which caused him to flinch a bit. “Keith, follow me. Everyone else, there’s an exercise room in there for you to wait in!” He pointed to the door, but didn’t wait to see if they went inside as he dragged Keith behind him.  
  
“What are we doing?” Keith asked. He tugged his arm away from Coran, but kept in stride with him. That seemed to appease the Altean enough.  
  
“It seems to me that you and Lance have some friction between you two, and as Paladins of Voltron, we can’t have that at all. Why, the past Paladins got along swimmingly.” He chuckled at that, as if he told himself the best joke. “Don’t you worry though. I’ll have you and Lance working together like two pieces of a nolodian berg.”  
  
Keith mouthed the words ‘nolodian berg’ to himself, but decided not to question it. It was probably better that way.  
  
…  
  
Lance stretched his arms out in front of him aimlessly. He wished that something would happen, otherwise he was going to let his mind wander down an endless rabbit hole. He definitely didn’t make up his rivalry with Keith to cover up the sting of rejection when the impressive boy didn’t pay attention to him. He definitely didn’t showboat a bit to draw attention towards himself.  
  
Okay, so maybe he was. Lance didn’t mean to be a bully. In fact, he hated bullies. The thought that he might be anything like James Griffin made shame rush through him. Keith may have ignored most people at the Garrison, but he had never been one for snide comments. Not like Teacher’s Pet James, who did no wrong until the instructors turned away.  
  
Maybe he acted like a bit of a jerk. Lance slouched slightly. It wouldn’t be easy, but after all of this training, he would find Keith and apologize for his behavior.  
  
He started as Coran’s voice suddenly echoed through the training room. "To form Voltron, you must trust in each other.” The ground around Lance started to glow, and he for a split second, he was surrounded by walls before they faded away. What the cheese?  
  
“This ancient Paladin maze will teach you that trust. Your teammate can see the walls, but you cannot. So, listen carefully. If you touch the walls, you'll get a slight shock."  
  
That seemed easy enough. Then a thought occurred to him. “Wait, who’s guiding me through?”  
  
The next voice he heard didn’t come from over the intercom, but rather, through his helmet. “Take two steps forward.”  
  
“Oh, no. Not Keith,” Lance whined, his heart racing. Did he really have to listen to him talk in his low, nice voice directly into his ear? Was that really happening? “Why does he get to be the man on the mic?" Why couldn’t it be Hunk or Pidge?  
  
"Now, just sit tight. You'll get your turn,” Coran assured him.  
  
He sighed and stretched out slightly as he waited for Keith to speak.  
  
"Like I said, take two steps forward, turn right, and take three steps that direction,” Keith said. He sounded a bit annoyed, if anything.  
  
“Turn right,” Lance mocked as he turned to the right and took a step forward. He walked right into a solid surface, and the resulting shock was definitely not a little one. “Ow! You did that on purpose!” First Keith called him out on his attitude, and then didn’t even give him the chance to apologize? Well forget that. Lance wasn’t apologizing for anything.

“You’re not listening,” Keith replied.   
  
He bristled at that. “You said to turn right!”  
  
A sigh echoed through his helmet. “Before that I said to take two steps forward.”  
  
“Two steps—“ Lance muttered to himself, because, oh yeah, Keith did say that, didn’t he? He took two steps forward, and ended up crashing into another wall. “Oh that’s it! We’re switching places right now!” He would not just sit there and let Keith lead him into walls as revenge.  
  
Two could play at this game.  
  
…  
  
They only got back in their lions on the promise that the castle wouldn’t shoot at them again, since that definitely did not help their predicament in the slightest.

Hunk honestly just wanted to go back to sleep. Or to get something to eat. They’d been at it for quite a while, and it had to be well after lunch time. Alteans slept way less than them, so maybe their metabolisms worked differently? God, he hoped not. He didn’t want there to be another fight just for them to meet the basic daily intake of calories they needed.  
  
He really just wanted to go home. Hunk understood why they couldn’t though. The thought of leading the Galra to Earth, with no way to defend it, was terrifying. No way could the Garrison’s defenses hold up against the Galra.  
  
So he’d suck it up for now.  
  
It wasn’t all bad though. Hunk really did like Yellow. He wasn’t a huge fan of flying, but when he was in Yellow, he felt like everything would be okay.  
  
“The bonds between Paladins are very important,” Coran’s voice came over the comms. “However, the bond between a Paladin and their lion is equally as important. You’ll never be able to form Voltron if you can’t bond with your lions.”  
  
“How does that work, exactly?” Pidge wondered aloud.  
  
Hunk was wondering the same thing too. How was it that what appeared to be machines, albeit, advanced ones, could communicate with them in the way that they did. It was clear that the lions, that Voltron, was vastly different from anything else, but why?  
  
Before Coran could answer, Lance interrupted. “We’ve got this in the bag. Me and Blue are best buds for life, for real."  
  
Hunk groaned a bit at that. Why did he feel like Lance wasn’t directing that claim towards Coran?  
  
Blissfully, that was who answered. “Perfect! Then you won't have any issues with this exercise. Everyone, put your Lions into a nosedive! This is an expert-level drill that you really shouldn't attempt until you've been flying for years, but, uh, we're in a bit of a rush, so here we go. Put your lions into a dive!”  
  
Hunk urged Yellow forward. This wasn’t too bad.  
  
“Activating training helmets!"  
  
Then everything went dark.  
  
“What just happened?” Hunk cried out in alarm, fingers holding onto the stick tightly. He felt Yellow around him, understanding and trying to calm him.  
  
“You must learn to see through the eyes of your lion! The goal is to pull up before you crash! Feel what the lion feels!”  
  
“Mine feels scared!” Hunk burst out, and that actually was kind of true. Yellow wanted nothing to do with this exercise, so he pulled out of the dive quickly.  
  
Yellow could have handled hitting the ground, earth was their element after all, but Hunk got the impression that Yellow was not at all happy with this training exercise. Or maybe about this whole training regime all together.  
  
“You still going, Keith?” Lance prodded. Hunk groaned.  
  
“You know it. You?” Whatever happened with the invisible maze seemed to make Keith give up whatever resistance he had to Lance’s poking. Of course he decided to rise up to the challenge instead. Keith really struck Hunk as a person who thrived on challenges and didn’t back down.  
  
“Going? I’m speeding up!”

Kind of like Lance.  
  
“Oh yeah?”

God, this was going to end badly.  
  
Hunk listened as the two bickered about getting closer to the ground. He flinched when Lance prodded Keith about being scared, and the other boy finally seemed to lose his temper as he yelled that he wasn’t.  
  
Then there were two loud crashes.  
  
Hunk looked down from where he hovered in the air and snorted when he realized that both Red and Blue were buried in the desert sand below.  
  
“Ow,” Keith muttered over the comms.

“I win,” Lance choked out.  
  
Yellow seemed to be more amused than anything else, though he assured Hunk that both of them were okay.  
  
“What was that noise?” Pidge called out next. “Did they crash?” That must have made her nervous (Hunk understood that), because she pulled out of the dive quickly. Unfortunately, by that point, she and Shiro both entered a canyon, so she slammed into the side of a cliff.  
  
“You okay?” Hunk asked her.

“Peachy,” she groaned.  
  
Hunk watched as the Black Lion suddenly pulled up rather than slam into the ground. Shiro flew it through the rocky paths without slowing down. “I think I’m getting this.”  
  
“Excellent Shiro!” Coran cheered him on.  
  
Well of course he got it. He was Shiro. How could he not get it? Hunk didn’t mean to be a little bitter or frustrated, but he was. They were probably all going to be held up to Shiro’s level now.  
  
“Alright, let’s go again!” Coran cried out cheerfully.  
  
Hunk sighed. He really hadn’t signed up for this.  
  
Yellow agreed with him.  
  
…  
  
Pidge groaned as she stretched out on the floor of the training deck, blissfully happy that they were instructed to sit. There were only so many times one could crash their lion without getting tired and fed up with everything.  
  
At the same time, she was a little bit worried, because Coran dropped these strange devices on their heads before he flounced out of the room. They definitely had some kind of sensors on them.  
  
“Now,” Coran said, startling all of them. He really needed to stop that. “The most important part of Paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron. Everything else has to fade away. This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron."  
  
“So what are we doing exactly?” Pidge wondered out loud.

“Picture your lions, and the way they make you feel,” Coran instructed them. That was easy enough. “Even before that, picture something that calms you and makes you happy. Maybe it’s a person, place, thing, or memory. Think of that, and then think of your lion and Voltron.”  
  
What seemed easy at first now made Pidge’s stomach twist. She wasn’t here to save the universe against Zarkon. The only thing that she wanted was to find her family. Still, she needed to talk to the other prisoners that they found.  
  
Little screens appeared in front of everyone. Lance and Hunk both had images of their families in front of them. Shiro’s seemed to be the inside of an apartment, though it was hard to say who the brown-haired guy that sat on the couch was. Keith’s looked like his shack, but there was another, bigger house there too. Pidge’s made her stomach twist. It was the picture of her and Matt.  
  
She just wanted her brother and father, was that too much to ask?  
  
Shiro and Keith’s memories seemed to shift at the same time. They formed into the Black and Red Lions, causing Coran to cheer. “Oh good! I was hoping this would happen!”

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked curiously.

“Well, you see, the Red and Black Lions are a peculiar case. As you know, the Black Lion is the head of Voltron, the leader. The Red Lion is the right arm of Voltron, and is essentially the right hand man, or the second in command. The other lions are content being equal to one another. Due to this, their Paladins come as a set. They can be friends, siblings, lovers, or anything else, as long as it’s a positive connection. If either the Red or Black Paladins are lost, it’s likely that the other Paladin would have to be replaced as well.”  
  
Pidge frowned at that. That was such an odd concept. The lions were clearly sentient creatures of their own, yet they were machines and didn’t seem to be an AI or anything like that. She really didn’t understand any of this.

What she did understand was that it was good that Keith and Shiro were close, all things considered.  
  
Soon, the Blue and Yellow Lions appeared, and they all shifted towards the center under Coran’s urging.  
  
Pidge tried to focus on Green, she really did, but the oddest thing was happening. It was like someone was trying to poke into her mind, someone that didn’t belong there. Someone that felt…Yellow?  
  
“Pidge!” Keith burst out suddenly, startling her. “Stop thinking of your girlfriend!”  
  
Her eyes snapped open and she stared at him with confusion. Keith knew that she was the girl in that picture, so what was he talking about? Also, it wasn’t her fault at all. “I wasn't! Hunk was rooting around in my head!"  
  
Wait, if they were all connected, did that mean that Keith felt Hunk going through her thoughts, and tried to stop it? Or maybe she was giving him a little too much credit.  
  
"I-I thought we were open,” Hunk spluttered nervously, his eyes wide and apologetic. “You can look in my head hole." It was really hard to stay mad when he clearly meant no harm. Pidge knew he was a snoop, so she shouldn’t have been surprised.  
  
Before she could respond, Coran said, “Everyone has to be able to look in everyone's head holes! Clear your minds!"  
  
Pidge huffed, closed her eyes, and focused on Green again. She could feel her lion, gentle, sweet, intelligent, but powerful. She urged her forward towards the others, and they were almost there, they were almost ready to form Voltron.  
  
Except that wasn’t what she wanted. That would mean that she’d have to focus on something other than her family.  
  
Green flickered into the picture of her and Matt.  
  
“Pidge!” Lance burst out.  
  
Frustration welled up in her, and Pidge ripped the headset off. "I'm done with this!” She glared fiercely at the boys in the room. “Look, I don't like everyone going around in my head!"  
  
“Pidge,” Shiro spoke calmly and knowingly. “We’re starting to get the hang of this.”  
  
Her anger fell away, and she slumped down a bit. Shiro knew what her problem was, and he spoke so soothingly that she couldn’t stay angry with him right now even if she wanted it. It just felt wrong. “I’m just…tired, okay?”  
  
He nodded his head. “Okay, let’s take a break.” He turned to the boys with a smile. “You’ve all been doing really well.” All three of them looked skeptical, and Pidge felt the same way. “This hasn’t been easy, but we haven’t given up, and that means something.”  
  
“I’ll be right down with some drinks for you all!” Coran said over the intercom. “Can’t have you getting dehydrated!” There was a buzz and a click as he turned off the mic.  
  
Pidge flopped down onto her back. She just wanted training to be over so that she could wait by the former prisoners and talk to them when they were out of the pods. Was that too much to ask for?

All she wanted was her family.  
  
…  
  
“You’ve all been working quite hard. Maybe it is time to relax a little,” Coran said as he handed Keith one of their hydration packets. All of the Paladins were spread out on the floor in front of him, sprawled tiredly.  
  
A bit of guilt rushed through Coran. They all worked not without complaint, but tirelessly. The problems that they were faced with were not from a lack of trying, that much was for certain. Maybe it was time to just let them sit back for a little while. Perhaps tackle a couple less intense bonding activities. Coran was sure that he could think of some more.  
  
“What are you doing lying around?” Coran grimaced as he looked up. Allura stormed over to them, her bright eyes positively livid as she regarded the Paladins. “You’re supposed to be training!” Her voice rose angrily.  
  
“Just resting a bit,” Coran said hurriedly. He adored Allura as if she was his own daughter, he’d been there for her all her life, especially after her mother passed away, but good lord did that girl have a temper. He wasn’t quite sure where she got it from. Then again, Alfor did seem to model his more serene, calm outlook on that of Melenor, so maybe there.

From the way her eyes narrowed, he knew that his ‘just resting a bit’ wasn’t going to sit well with her. “You can’t push too hard, you know.”  
  
“What do you mean, ‘can’t push too hard’?” Allura demanded, hands on her hips. “Get up, you lazy lumps! It’s time you faced the Gladiator.”  
  
Coran sighed. He didn’t think it was a good idea, but she was the Princess, and she was all he had left, so he’d support her decision. “Very well.”  
  
“Are you kidding me?” Hunk burst out. He looked positively distressed. “We’ve been working hard all day!”  
  
“And yet you still haven’t formed Voltron,” Allura snapped at him. Lance opened his mouth to defend Hunk, but she quickly wheeled around on him. “And you were ready to back out of the very first exercise today, so I don’t want to hear anything from you about working hard.”  
  
“Come on,” Shiro said as he stood, though he looked just as wary as the other Paladins at this point. “Let’s see what this Gladiator’s all about.”  
  
The four younger Paladins all moaned and groaned, pushing themselves to their feet under Allura’s stern gaze.  
  
“You have to be ready,” she commanded as her eyes narrowed. “Zarkon would absolutely destroy you if he showed up right now! Don’t roll your eyes at me!” The last outburst startled Coran, who followed her gaze to Keith.  
  
He crossed his arms in front of him and fixed her with an unimpressed stare. Wisely, he kept his mouth shut, or maybe he just didn’t have anything to say to her. Coran wasn’t entirely sure.  
  
Instead, he clapped his hands together and said, “Alright, you five wait in the center of the room!” He headed towards the door. “I’ll set the controls manually. Coming, Princess?”  
  
“Yes,” she answered with a stiff nod, and followed him out of the room.  
  
The silence that hung over them was heavy as Allura silently fumed beside him. When they got to the control room, she muttered, “I’m tempted to put it on high.”  
  
“Allura,” Coran spoke cautiously. If she kept this up, she was going to be making enemies out of the Paladins.  
  
It was true that the lions came to be on Altea, but there was nothing saying that the lions themselves had to remain loyal to the Alteans. If the Paladins chose to leave, it was very likely that the lions would choose to go with them.  
  
It was probably good that the Paladins didn’t realize just how in control of the situation they really were. They could find out about the war from other sources, could likely find allies. Technically speaking, it was Allura and himself that needed them, more than they needed him and Allura.  
  
She said nothing, but didn’t protest as he turned the Gladiator on to the lowest setting. He looked down below, and saw that all five of them had their bayards out. That was good!  
  
Coran cleared his throat as he activated the mic. “In order to defeat the Gladiator, all five of you must fight as one!” He pressed the button to drop the Gladiator into the arena. It was a simple robot that used a staff. Nothing too difficult.  
  
“What?” Hunk asked, completely confused. The brief moment of distraction made him easy prey for the Gladiator, who completely kicked him out of the perimeters of the training arena. He groaned, holding his stomach.  
  
Pidge yelped, startled as the Gladiator turned to her. She swung at it, but was quickly knocked off of her feet. Lance rushed at it, perhaps in an attempt to help her, but the Gladiator grabbed him and tossed him clear across the arena. Coran grimaced when he slammed into Keith and they both rolled across the ground.  
  
The Gladiator rushed at Shiro, and like with the other tasks, Coran honestly expected Shiro to excel in this, especially after Pidge’s recount of what happened in Sendak’s ship. That didn’t happen. Instead, it was like he was frozen in place.  
  
The Gladiator raised up its staff, and beside him, even Allura grimaced. This was going to hurt.  
  
Keith suddenly launched himself up from the floor and ran faster than Coran had seen any of the humans move. He threw his thin sword up and pressed his hand to the flat side of it to block the Gladiator’s staff. “Shiro, are you okay?”  
  
“He’s fast,” Allura noted, an odd tone to her voice. Coran glanced at her, but she kept her thoughtful eyes on Keith.  
  
“He is,” Coran agreed, and he had to wonder where she was going with that.  
  
“His Quintessence is different from the others,” she added. “From the sounds of it, he can sense it too. Almost like I can, but in a lesser sense. It makes me wonder.” Her look of wonder turned into one of annoyance as Keith was thrown into Shiro, and they both slammed into the ground.  
  
“Allura, wait!” Coran called out to her as she stormed out of the room.  
  
She didn’t wait. In fact, she seemed to almost speed up.  
  
“That combat simulator was set at a level fit for an Altean child!” she yelled as she stomped into the training room. All of the Paladins had gathered around where Shiro was still kneeling on the floor, a hand pressed to his head. “You're not even close to working as a team, let alone ready to face Zarkon!"  
  
Keith was on his feet again, his expression absolutely livid. “You know what it means when a team fails? It means they have shit leadership so no one else has any idea what to do! And Shiro’s been trying, so that’s not his fault!”  
  
“Excuse me?” Allura snapped back, her temper matching his. “All you’ve done all day is complain about everything and fail every challenge we’ve given you!”  
  
“Allura,” Shiro suddenly spoke up. Coran looked at him, and frowned at how shaken he looked. Hunk stayed beside him, a hand on his shoulder to keep him steady. “Can’t you just give us a break? Everyone’s been working really hard today.”

That seemed to rile up Keith even more, who looked back at her. “Shiro’s right! We’re not some prisoners for you to toy with like…like…”  
  
“Like a bunch of toy prisoners!” Lance burst out as he stood up as well.

“Yes! Thank you, Lance!” Keith narrowed his eyes at her. “All you’ve been doing is shrieking at us all day, and Coran’s been giving us riddles instead of instructions and clearly doesn’t have a backbone to tell you that you’re acting like a fucking…dictator.”  
  
“That’s enough!” Coran burst in, not to save face, but because he knew exactly what Keith meant by that. He was comparing her to Zarkon, and Coran would not stand for that. “You will not yell at the Princess!”  
  
“The Princess of what?” Pidge demanded. “Of a planet that hasn’t existed in 5,000 years? She’s no Princess of ours, that’s for sure. And oh, look, we’re the only ones here!”  
  
An enraged sound came from Allura, and Coran had to physically grab her to stop her from grabbing at Pidge. He had no idea what would happen if he let go, but he wasn’t going to risk that.  
  
“Enough,” Shiro said, his voice low and deadly serious. “Let’s go.” He put a hand on Keith’s shoulder, and wheeled him around towards another door. Hunk did the same for Pidge and Lance, and in a colorful flurry of movement, the five Paladins left the room.  
  
Allura struggled out of his arms, taking several deep breaths before she pressed her face into her hands and screamed.  
  
“Princess…” Coran trailed off, not quite sure what to say to her.  
  
Her attention snapped up to him, eyes red-rimmed and furious. “They are not the Paladins of Voltron! They can stay until we find more suitable Paladins, but then we can leave them on an asteroid where no one will ever find them!”

Coran tried to warn her that it didn’t work that way, but she stormed by him before he could say anything. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  
  
“What I wouldn’t give for you to be here to help with this, Melenor.”  
  
…  
  
There were a lot of large, empty rooms in the castle. Shiro had been unable to fall back to sleep after Allura woke them earlier, and instead wandered around. It was how he found a lounge deep in the castle where he doubted they’d be found.  
  
Not that he thought Allura would be looking for them any time soon.  
  
“What happened out there?” Hunk asked as he turned his dark brown eyes towards him.  
  
“I had a flashback,” Shiro admitted. “A small glimpse of a Galra attacking me from my time as a prisoner.” That was something that he’d need to figure out. He couldn’t very well have that screw them up in the middle of a real battle.  
  
There were more important things to worry about right now though.

“Keith.” He turned his attention towards his younger brother.  
  
He immediately crossed his arms and stared back defiantly. “I don’t regret what I said.”  
  
Shiro sighed. He understood where Keith’s ire came from. Despite what other teachers said in the lounge back at the Garrison (he hated the teacher’s lounge, it was a cesspool of gossip), Keith actually wasn’t one to get into fights or to lash out without reason. He had a reason to confront Allura, he just went about it in the wrong way.  
  
“Yelling isn’t going to fix anything,” he said instead. “Allura’s in the wrong, yes, but we need to find a better way to deal with it.”

“Like what?” Lance asked, his brows furrowed seriously. “She’s going to be on our cases until we can form Voltron, exactly like the people that had over 200 years of experience working together.”  
  
“Forget about them, forget about Allura and Coran. We are the Paladins of Voltron now, no one else. The lion’s chose us,” Shiro said sternly. “Can you all feel your lions?” He could. Black was like a silent, looming presence at the back of his mind that had the potential to be intimidating, but was actually very comforting.  
  
One by one, the others nodded their heads.  
  
“See, the connections are there, we just need to figure out a way that works.” His mind rushed over a few different ideas before he nodded his head to himself. “We’re going to do our own team building exercises.”  
  
Pidge raised an eyebrow as she regarded him skeptically, “Like what?”  
  
Shiro’s mind went blank at her question. He was a teacher, for goodness sake (well, a part-time one). If he couldn’t bullshit some icebreakers on the spot, he definitely shouldn’t be in that profession. “Two truths and a lie!”  
  
“Huh?” Pidge tilted her head.

Lance perked up excitedly. “I love that game!”  
  
Keith raised an eyebrow at him. “Really?”  
  
A silly smirk spread across his lips, and Lance leaned in closer to him. “Got something to hide?”  
  
Keith shoved him away. “No.”  
  
There was no hostility to his voice, but Shiro didn’t want either one of them to start anything, so he quickly said, “You guys know the rules, right? We all tell three things: two truths, one lie. Things about ourselves. Then everyone else guesses it. And yes, everyone has to do this.”  
  
Keith rolled his eyes, but then closed and rubbed them a bit.  
  
With no protests, they moved the furniture around (it wasn’t bolted down like the stuff in the main lounge) so that they could sit comfortably and face one another.  
  
“Right,” Shiro said. “I’ll go first!” He thought for a moment, and wondered what things he could include to show a little bit about himself, while also lightening up the mood a bit. His eyes fell on Keith, and a smirk crossed his lips. “I had a fiancé. I hate Froot Loops. I basically adopted a 12-year-old that stole my car.”  
  
Keith eyes snapped up to him immediately, wide for a brief moment until they narrowed.  
  
Immediately, Hunk, Lance, and Pidge were all up in arms over the last thing that he said, just as Shiro guessed that they would.  
  
“What?” Hunk looked horrified. “There’s no way that’s true. No way.”  
  
“What kind of 12-year-old can steal a car?” Pidge had to wonder. “I mean, I probably could have, but it wasn’t me. That’s definitely fake.”  
  
“You’re not even trying, Shiro,” Lance groaned. “It’s not supposed to be obvious. Definitely the car one.”  
  
Keith was silent for a moment, his eyes locked on him heatedly. Shiro could feel the grin on his face spread the longer Keith glowered at him. Finally, his shoulders slumped and he said, “I hate you, and I know all about your Froot Loops addiction, asshole.”

Keith was right, Shiro did love Froot Loops. He’d probably try to live off of them if he could. Just them, not milk. He was lactose intolerant, after all.  
  
The other three stared at Keith oddly.  
  
Shiro laughed and threw his arm around Keith, who looked every bit like a petulant child. “He was the 12-year-old.”  
  
Silence, then three responses at the same time.  
  
“I can’t believe you stole his car!” Hunk exclaimed.  
  
“Can you teach me to hotwire a car?” Pidge asked, positively excited.

“Why didn’t you tell me you and Shiro are related?” Lance cried out. That one prompted Shiro to raise an eyebrow.  
  
Keith looked at Lance like he was the single strangest thing that he had ever seen, and they were in space with aliens. “I’m adopted?” He paused. “Well, no, fostered.”

Something hot and painful hit Shiro at his words. He never told Keith, but he actually had looked into legally adopting him, so there was no need to worry about him being moved to another place. Albeit, it was only a risk for holidays and summer once he was in the Garrison, but Shiro didn’t want that for the struggling, young boy. Due to his illness, he wasn’t even actually allowed to have legal guardianship over Keith, not alone. That was where Adam stepped in.  
  
Shiro knew that a part of Adam agreed to it in hopes that it would actually keep him on Earth more.  
  
It hurt to hear Keith be a little confused about how to describe their relationship. He knew that he thought of him as a brother, it went both ways, but that still bothered him a bit.  
  
“Also,” Keith’s words broke Shiro out of his thoughts, “his fiancé was the one who made sure I didn’t die.”  
  
He looked up, a bit offended. “I helped!”  
  
“You basically adopted the 12-year-old that stole your car, and you think Froot Loops is a food group,” Keith replied dryly, to which Shiro didn’t have any arguments, despite the urge to argue with him.  
  
Never mind, Shiro was going to give him back the second they got back to Earth. Little brothers were awful.  
  
“Uh, why did you steal his car?” Hunk asked, still perturbed by this.  
  
Keith narrowed his eyes. “Griffin.”  
  
Shiro jumped on the opportunity that presented itself. “Give us your truths and lie before you go off on a tirade about how much of a jerk James Griffin is.” He was sorely tempted to tease Keith about the time he mused about how the cute ones were always colossal jerks, but he wasn’t going to out him in front of everyone else before he was ready.  
  
Keith groaned, and brought his hand up to press against the corners of his eyes. Shiro frowned a bit at that, and something nagged at the back of his mind. Something that he should remember. Keith looked up and said, “I had a loving mother growing up. My father was a firefighter. I did ballet.  
  
It took everything Shiro had not to blurt out his thoughts on just how blunt that was, and of course he went for a lie that was serious. God, his brother was a disaster who went from being overly private to oversharing at a moment’s notice.  
  
Lance snorted and shook his head. “Ballet. No way in shit you did ballet.”

“I’m with Lance,” Hunk agreed, and quickly raised his hands up defensively. “Not because a guy can’t do it, but because it’s just…not a you thing? You know? Fencing maybe, but not ballet.”  
  
Pidge hummed thoughtfully, her amber eyes scanning Keith as if he had the answer on him. “The ballet one is too random to come up with out of nowhere. Has to be true. And the firefighter one is much more straightforward and not detailed. I’m gonna go with the mother one.” She paused for a moment, her brow pinched as she thought about the implication of that.  
  
Shiro, of course, already knew the answer. “I know, so I don’t want to give it away.”  
  
Keith nodded, and looked towards Lance and Hunk. “I’ve never met my mother, so you’re wrong. Also fencing is basically just ballet with swords…”  
  
Hunk thought about that before he nodded in agreement. Lance, on the other hand, stared at Keith with wide eyes. “You did…I…what?” His voice rose up oddly.  
  
Shiro narrowed his eyes at him. Why was something about his behavior really familiar?  
  
Keith rubbed his eyes again, but chose to ignore Lance this time. He nudged Pidge, who was sitting on his other side. “Your turn.”  
  
That seemed to startle her. “Uh, yeah. Um…” She trailed off and looked around the room, as if the blank, white wall could give her an answer. “I have a dog named Bae Bae. I will sacrifice you for peanut butter at the first given opportunity. I have a Nonna that doesn’t know anything about anything.”  
  
Shiro blinked. He definitely knew about Bae Bae, but the other two…  
  
Hunk genuinely looked a little bit alarmed. “I’m gonna hope the peanut butter one was a lie.”

“You and me both,” Shiro agreed. He remembered Matt’s thing with peanut butter, and hoped that she was just taking an example from him. Wait, hadn’t he mentioned something about a Nonna before too?

“Dog one,” Keith answered.

“Really?” Pidge asked, genuinely curious about why he picked that one.  
  
The shrugged, an open, honest expression on his face. “I just met you, but I have little doubt that you’d sacrifice us for peanut butter.” That drew a laugh from the girl.  
  
“You guys are all wrong,” Lance announced with a dramatic wave of his arms. “It’s the Nonna one.” He pointed at himself. “I don’t have a Nonna, I have an Abuela, and they just know.” He shuddered a bit and looked over his shoulder, as if expecting his grandmother to suddenly appear behind him.  
  
Pidge shuddered too and nodded at him. “Nonna probably knows where we are right now. She was sure that Matt and dad were alive.”  
  
Hunk stared at Pidge, horrified and almost wounded. “You’d really sacrifice us for peanut butter?”  
  
Pidge shot him an unnerving grin. “I guess it’s your turn now!”  
  
Hunk narrowed his eyes at Pidge suspiciously. “I can play the ukulele. I have a rock collection. I once set my kitchen on fire.”  
  
Before anyone else could say anything, Lance positively exploded with excitement. “Oh man, I know this one! The rock collection.”  
  
“Lance!” Pidge shot him an annoyed look. “The person who actually knows should go last, you idiot!” He shrunk down a little bit at that.  
  
“I guess I’m going with the rock collection?” Keith spoke up after a beat. Shiro snorted, and Lance almost looked relieved.  
  
Hunk sighed dramatically. “Yes. I love rocks and gemstones, but I don’t have anything to properly hold them in so I never bothered collecting them.” He nudged Lance. “Alright, talks-a-lot, you’re turn.  
  
Lance wasted no time in saying, “I was a theatre kid and always got big roles in the plays I was in. I would rather die than be a farmer. I was once an extra in a movie.”  
  
“You never told me you were an extra in a movie!” Hunk burst out, his eyes widening with excitement. “That’s so cool! Oh, right! Um, the farmer one!”  
  
Pidge pouted a bit. “The extra one is too random to be a lie, and two of them are a lot alike too. The farm one.”  
  
Shiro couldn’t help but notice the way Lance’s smile fell slightly. It was gone in a flash though.  
  
“No way,” Keith argued as he crossed his arms in front of him and fixed Lance with a disbelieving look. “You were not an extra in a movie once. You would have rubbed that in my face already if you had! That’s the lie.”  
  
Shiro thought about it for a moment. There was something about Lance that really reminded him of himself, and he got the feeling that Lance wouldn’t be happy on a farm at all. Already, Shiro could tell that he was ambitious. Now that he was trying to remember Lance, he was fairly certain that he saw him in a couple of the school plays before. “I’m going with the movie extra one too.”  
  
Lance stared at them briefly before saying, “Unbelievable. The two I know least get it right.” He sent Hunk a judging expression.  
  
“What?” Hunk defended himself. “I thought you could do it!” Lance looked like he wanted to protest, but let it go with a shrug.  
  
Shiro was actually pretty pleased by the outcome of this. He genuinely felt like the air was cleared up a bit more around them, which had been the goal in the first place. The only thing that really nagged him at the moment was the fact that Keith was rubbing his eyes again.  
  
Then it clicked, and Shiro felt absolutely exasperated as he put a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Take them out.”  
  
Keith looked at him, confused, and when he did, Shiro could very clearly see the redness to Keith’s sclera. “You keep rubbing your eyes, and they’re getting red. You need to take your contacts out.” He couldn’t believe he actually still had to tell him this.  
  
“You need contacts?” Lance blurted out, and Shiro remembered why Keith kept quiet about that. “Isn’t that against the rules of being a pilot?”  
  
“I don’t need them,” Keith answered him hastily. “They’re not for sight or anything.” He looked up at Shiro almost pleadingly. “I just…Shiro…”  
  
“Keith,” he said, briefly taken back to a younger version of the boy sitting in front of him, upset with what the other kids said about him. “We’re in space with literal aliens. No one’s going to care that your eyes are a unique colour.”  
  
Shiro wasn’t sure if Lance and Hunk were in the group that poked fun at Keith for his eyes, the word ‘freak’ being used more than once, but he doubted it. Lance could be brash, but he didn’t seem to be the type to be malicious.

“What?” Hunk asked, genuinely perplexed.  
  
Keith hesitated, and god if he didn’t look like he tried to pull in on himself and hide. Something passed over his features, and he sat up a bit straighter again. “My eyes are weird, and kids are assholes, so Shiro got me grey contacts.”  
  
“And you’ve had them in this whole time?” Pidge asked from Keith’s other side. She narrowed her eyes and leaned in closer. “That’s gotta hurt! And we won’t be assholes about that, right Lance?”  
  
“Why are you calling me out?” Lance protested. Internally, he reeled a bit, because of course Keith had contacts. There was no way a guy could have eyes that pretty. Pidge stared at him. Lance stared back. “I wouldn’t!”  
  
Keith sighed and reached up, taking the grey contacts out of his eyes. Lance instantly froze once Keith looked up.  
  
“Are your eyes purple?” Hunk asked, leaned forward on the couch, absolutely fascinated as he tilted his head.  
  
“Birth defect,” Keith replied with a shrug, as if he wasn’t insecure about the particular colour of his eyes. As if children didn’t tease him about having freaky eyes to the point where Shiro offered to get him colour contacts. It was a bandage, not a solution to the situation  
  
“The coolest birth defect ever!” Pidge said, and actually scooted so close to Keith to peer at his eyes that she was leaning up against him.  
  
“Yeah, it’s…not bad,” Lance assured him. “Nothing to make fun of.” He sounded calm, but internally, he was screaming. The grey contacts needed to go back in right now. He didn’t know why, but they had to.  
  
With a soft expression, Keith nodded. “Thanks.”

Shiro felt pride bubble up inside of him. It was a leap of faith on Keith’s part, since kids could be cruel if they were raised that way, always ready to pick on something that wasn’t ‘right’. He was the most stubborn person Shiro knew (though Pidge seemed to give him a run for his money), and if he didn’t want to show that bit of trust in the other Paladins, he wouldn’t have.  
  
“Good job, guys,” Shiro spoke up, a small spreading across his lips. “Now, how about we try a human knot?” They moaned and groaned, but they all got up. Surely this activity wouldn’t be too hard?  
  
That kind of felt like a jinx, because Hunk ended up tripping over Lance’s arm when he tried to step over it, knocking the entire group over.  
  
“I’ve got one we did in drama class,” Lance spoke up from where he was sprawled on the floor. Shiro nodded at him, and they all stood back up. Lance was silent, starting a bit when he realized that everyone was waiting for him to continue. He wasn’t really used to that. “Um, well, the idea is to stand in a circle. One person closes their eyes or is blindfolded, and they kind of just let themselves go limp. Then people pass them around from one person to the next. The idea is that the person being passed around tries not to tense up or catch themselves since they don’t know who’s passing them where or anything like that, and they trust everyone?”  
  
“That’s actually a really good one, Lance,” Shiro said encouragingly, and something warm rushed through the boy at the praise. “I’ll be the one in the middle first.” He looked over at Pidge. “You’ll be okay catching us, right?”  
  
Pidge nodded her head. “It’s not like I have to lift someone, right? Just kind of catch and push?” She glanced at Lance, who nodded in response. “I’ll be fine.”  
  
They didn’t have a blindfold to use, but after a minute of fiddling with Shiro’s helmet, Pidge was able to figure out how to manually activate and deactivate the blackout mode on it. Shiro put it on without hesitation, and started by leaning against Keith. That came as absolutely no surprise, given their relationship.  
  
What did come as a surprise, to Lance at least, was that Keith passed Shiro to him before anyone else. He expected him to go for Hunk.  
  
Everyone was tentative as they passed their leader from one person to the next, Pidge grunting just a bit under his weight, but Shiro stayed relaxed the entire time, his lips twitching up in a smile.  
  
Lance volunteered to go next, and loudly complained that he was tossed around a little more roughly than Shiro was.

“That’s because Shiro’s all muscle,” Pidge noted. “You’re a string bean.” The incomprehensible noises that followed made everyone laugh.  
  
Now, Lance would claim that he wasn’t a petty person, so what Pidge said was in no way, shape, or form, the reason that he ended up basically tossing him to Hunk.  
  
Hunk, in turn, was a good sport about the whole thing even if he was the biggest of them. Keith was tense for the first little bit, very clearly not comfortable with so many people touching him, but he pulled through.  
  
Their second human knot that they tried after that almost worked, but Pidge ended up stumbling into Shiro, and again, they all fell to the floor in a pile.  
  
Shiro was encouraged by this point though, because instead of annoyed groans, everyone was laughing at their ridiculous failure this time.  
  
“Alright, take a few minutes to stretch out and relax,” Shiro instructed them. “And if anyone has any idea for other games we can do, shout it out.”  
  
“At a youth camp I went to when I was younger, we had to hold onto a rope with a blindfold on, and the person at the other end of the rope led us through an obstacle course,” Hunk suggested.  
  
“We can use our helmets for a blindfold,” Keith noted, “but where would we get a rope?”  
  
“The zip lines!” Pidge shouted immediately, her eyes positively blazing. She turned her attention to Shiro. “Gimme the word, and I’ll hack those to pieces.”

“We kind of need those,” Shiro pointed out to her.

“They’re ridiculous,” Hunk replied with a shake of his head. “Like, when we got in earlier and walked back to the lounge from the hangars, I looked at the door and it only opens one way.”  
  
“Why?” Lance groaned as Hunk continued to talk specifics about the door, Pidge latched onto his every word. “It’s so stupid!”  
  
“Makes it really hard for the wrong people to get to the lions though,” Keith pointed out with a small shrug.  
  
Lance’s head lolled back, and he raised an eyebrow. “You wanna keep using them?”

“Fuck no, they’re stupid.”  
  
“So we reprogram them!” Pidge exclaimed, startling both boys. They turned their attention back to her and Hunk. “I mean, I’ve been studying the tech in our suits and other things, and I’m sure I could help reprogram them.”  
  
“Well, if we changed the configuration of the door…” Hunk trailed off in thought, and then he was off, making plans about how to make the hangars more accessible from the bridge.  
  
Keith blinked his violet eyes slowly, looking from Hunk to Pidge and back again. He then turned a curious look towards Lance. Lance just shook his head and shrugged.  
  
Shiro watched all of them, taking in their interactions with interest. He thought about their bayards, about their fighting styles (or lack of, at this point), his mind already coming up with potential ways that they could tackle different kinds of missions.  
  
Though he very much wanted to just let Hunk and Pidge plot on how to make the lions more accessible, he had the feeling that they would end up getting lost in that task, and that wasn’t why they were there.  
  
“Alright, everyone up,” he told them, pleased when he didn’t receive the groans he had earlier. “Hm, how about some trust falls?”  
  
“Great idea!” Lance burst out. He climbed over the back of the couch and threw himself at Hunk.  
  
The problem was that Hunk hadn’t even turned to look at Lance, so he careened down towards the floor. Or rather, he would have, but Keith managed to grab a hold of him before he hit the ground.  
  
“Thanks Hunk,” Lance said sarcastically as he straightened himself up.  
  
“Sorry, sorry!” Hunk exclaimed when he realized what had happened.  
  
Trust falls were easy to do when everyone was paying attention, and Shiro made sure that everyone had the chance to catch everyone else, because it was important. They were a team, and they needed to act like a team.  
  
The third time they tried the human knot, they managed to get out of it successfully.  
  
Black’s presence pressed against Shiro’s mind, and he couldn’t help but smile. “What do you think? Go to the lions?”  
  
The four younger Paladins all exchanged glances before similar, determined expressions appeared on their faces.  
  
“Roger that!”

“It’s on!”

“Yes, sir!”  
  
“I was born ready!”  
  
Shiro laughed at their simultaneous responses. “Alright. Let’s go!”  
  
The five of them headed out of the old, hidden lounge and towards their lions, all of whom were just as eager to try again.  
  
…  
  
Allura stared at the orb in her hand, tilting it back and forth. The light of the room glinted off of the silver webbing that laid over the orb’s crystal surface, a vibrant, cyan light glowing from within. Plachu moved closer to it, sniffing, and squeaking, before looking up at her.  
  
“This is something my mother gave me when I was first learning to concentrate on specific sources of quintessence,” she explained, the other three mice moving in closer. “She died when I was very young. Only 50 decaphoebs old. Perhaps she knew her time was coming though, because she tried to teach me a lot.”  
  
Of course, Allura knew that her mother had been sick since she was but a babe. Queen Melenor was born to the royal family of Altea, and was very powerful when it came to all things quintessence (though not an alchemist like her father had been). That was something the royal family was known for, even those that married into the family, after the marriage rituals left them with the same white locks of hair that those born into the family had. From what Allura understood, her father had a shock of vibrant blue hair prior to that.  
  
That aside, the lessons her mother shared became more and more frequent the closer she came to the end of her life. It left Allura wondering if she knew her time was growing short. If she felt some form of dread?

That was what Allura felt now as she looked at the orb in her hand, the normally calming pulse of quintessence doing absolutely nothing to help. She had no idea what to do.  
  
Though she earlier mentioned getting new Paladins, Allura knew that it didn’t work like that. The Black Lion sat unmoving for 50 decaphoebs while the war raged on. Her father even tried to pilot Black while Coran went into Red, since there was no way their connection wasn’t potent enough to work. Black refused to budge.   
  
A warm hand rested on her shoulder, and she looked over at Coran. She sighed sadly. “What do we do?”

“Have faith,” Coran answered. “Perhaps listen more.”  
  
“Listen? To them?” Allura’s brow furrowed, her defenses rising up.

Before she could add anything else to her statement, Coran held up his hand. “Though they look Altean, they are a different species from us. We need to learn about them too, because they are correct in the fact that we can’t send them into battle exhausted, starving, or dehydrated. They have different strengths, weaknesses, and so much more.”  
  
Allura thought about that, guilt creeping up through her. “When Keith helped me yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice how smooth and…fragile his skin felt. Lance as well when I grabbed his ear.” She let go of the orb, allowing the mice to play with it. It was sturdy and wouldn’t break, plus she’d be able to locate it later if they moved it.

“Exactly. We can’t assume that what works for us, what is normal for us, is normal for them. Not to mention, no one likes being pushed around.” Coran shook his head. “The Blue Lion would not have brought them here if they weren’t worthy.”  
  
Allura was about to respond to that, when movement out of the windows caught her attention. Her stomach leapt into her chest when she saw the five lions flying in the air. For a horrible, awful moment, Allura genuinely thought that the Paladins were going to leave. Yes, the castle often helped them replenish their energy quicker, but that could happen naturally, and it took a lot to impact their energy reserves as it was.

In a horrible moment, Allura realized exactly what Coran had been trying to subtly tell her. Right now, they needed the Paladins more than the Paladins needed them. The lions would follow them wherever they went unless purposefully sent away.  
  
Except, they didn’t fly away. They came together, each lion glowing their specific colour, and after a bright flash of light, Voltron hovered in the air.  
  
“They did it,” she breathed out, tears prickling at the corner of her eyes. “How? Nothing was working.”  
  
“Maybe we were the ones going about things the wrong way,” Coran suggested. “Maybe we all need to learn to listen to one another a little more. You and I may not have lions, but if we’re going to be part of this team, we need to work with them in the same way, don’t we?”

That question made all of the fight leave Allura. Perhaps she made a mistake, but she was trying her best. Though the Paladins too seemed to be trying their best as well, and she didn’t take a moment to think about that, did she? Though the words were hurtful, Pidge was absolutely right in his assessment that Allura wasn’t their princess.  
  
She was the princess of one, solitary other, and nothing more.  
  
Voltron moved through the sky, twisting and turning in odd ways, no doubt the Paladins getting used to working together. It was actually a very heartening thing to see. Though her personal pride was a bit shot, she couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Voltron.  
  
Perhaps they really could do this after all.  
  
…  
  
“Man, that was cool!” Lance said as he practically threw himself down on the lounge chair beside Hunk, finally in his own (newly cleaned) clothes and not his uniform. “I am so charged up, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep tonight!”  
  
Honestly, he felt like he was ready to run, dance, or do some flips. The feeling of actually being able to form Voltron, of being able to bond with an amazing group of people, was kind of everything he always wanted. To be a part of something important. To not just be the youngest McClain-Rivera kid.  
  
He genuinely felt like he was on the right path to that.  
  
Keith glanced up at Lance, away from the corner of the couch that caught his attention for some reason, a slight smile playing on his lips at just how excited he was. He was a tad annoying, but he really wasn’t a bad guy at all, was he? Keith guessed he didn’t have to put him in the category of ‘cute, but a complete jerk’ after all.  
  
Deciding to just go for it, Keith’s smile turned into a playful smirk he directed right at Lance. “Not me. When my head hits the pillow, I’m going to be lights out.” Maybe that came out a little flirtier than he meant for it to, but that was fine. Lance’s deer-in-headlights expression was actually kind of cute.  
  
He couldn’t remember the last time he felt so at ease with a group of people.  
  
“I just want you to know that I realized when we were in Voltron, we're brothers, man,” Hunk said, throwing one arm around Keith, and one around Lance, yanking them close to him. At first, he’d definitely been intimidated by Keith, but he felt the fact that he was a good person, and that was enough for him. He was going to cherish every single one of these people as much as he did his own family.  
  
He hoped that his Tinā and Tamā would be proud of him. He felt so invigorated like he hadn’t been in such a long time. It made all his fears and anxiety melt away (at least for now).  
  
He saw Lance smiling out of the corner of his eye, and squeezed a little harder. “You know? Like, we're totally connected. No secrets, no barriers, no nothing. Brothers all the way. I love you guys."  
  
Keith chuckled at him as he loosened his grip. “G-forces mess with your head a little bit?" He said it so light-heartedly, that Hunk couldn’t take offense to it.  
  
“Yeah, maybe a little,” he admitted, which was probably true. “It’s been a wild couple of days.”  
  
Pidge opened her mouth to comment, when the door slid open. Everyone fell silent as Allura, once again wearing her dress and not her battle suit, walked towards them. Her hands were clasped together, and she hesitated before saying, “I am proud of all of you. You managed to figure out a way to form Voltron together, and that…that’s amazing.”  
  
“It’s true,” Coran agreed, coming up behind her with a smile on his face. “To be honest, we were pushing a little too hard, and for a goal that seemed impossible at the time. You see, outside of emergencies, it took the Paladins of Old quite a long time to be able to form Voltron on a whim.”  
  
“What?” Pidge blurted out.  
  
“Yes, well, we’re on a time crunch,” he said with a small shrug. “And it doesn’t matter, you were able to do it much, much quicker than they did.” He nodded towards the door. “You deserve a good meal. Let’s head down to the dining room! I’ve tried to spice up the food goo some!”  
  
Grumbling stomachs reminded all of them about how hungry they actually were. Hunk and Lance started towards the door, but Keith paused, staring at the corner of the couch with concentrated expression.  
  
It was really strange, like there was something there that felt different from everything else in the room. It kind of felt like the light energy that was constantly thrumming through the castle, just not concentrated.  
  
“Glare at it anymore, and you’ll burn a hole through it, Mullet,” Lance called back to him, snapping him out of his daze. Lance raised an eyebrow at him. “Come on. I’m starved and might eat your share too.”  
  
“Like fuck you are,” Keith replied, following after them.  
  
Shiro chuckled, and realized that Pidge too was lagging behind a bit. He placed a hand on her shoulder, knowing that this was hard for her with her family out there somewhere. “Good work today. I know it’s hard, but we’re really coming together.”  
  
Pidge smiled at him tightly, her fingers fiddling with the picture she chose to keep on her after Hunk went snooping through her stuff. She just needed something, any kind of clue to find her family.  
  
Allura watched as the last of the Paladins left the room, before turning to the couch and frowning. She watched all of them closely, and noticed Keith’s focus on this specific spot. She pressed a button underneath it, opening the compartment below the cushion.  
  
She blinked with surprise when she found the mice with her quintessence ball. “How on Altea did you get in there? Come on.” She held her hands out, allowing them to climb up onto her. She grabbed the orb and closed the compartment, musing on how clever her mice truly were.  
  
Then she stared at the orb with wide eyes, realizing exactly what she saw. Her suspicions were right. Keith was able to sense quintessence, and yet, none of the other humans were. Her heart pounded in her chest as she thought about the implication. There were few species that were naturally quintessence-sensitive, and though evolution could work quickly at times, she doubted that there were that many new ones out there that could feel it.  
  
Except, none of the others that could sense or manipulate quintessence mattered to her, because it was just a thought, just a theory, but it made her heart run wild. Alteans were known explorers and travelers. Maybe, just maybe, a few had found Earth, found humans, and hid amongst them. A generation or two back would still keep the marks on their faces, but several back likely wouldn’t.  
  
“Maybe we’re not the last Alteans after all,” she breathed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is doing well, that you're all safe, and that this chapter kept you some form of entertained. You'll notice that there were some keys things that were completely different here, but it's still the same general plot line for now. This is the kind of thing you'll notice more and more as we go along. 
> 
> Allura really does come across as a bitch in this, but rest assured, she's just stressed and annoyed, and doesn't understand humans all that much. She's a full rounded character who is allowed to be frustrated and make mistakes, but rest assured, she is very much the caring, strong woman we know. She's got some growing to do too. There's something to say about Altean arrogance as well. 
> 
> I know things with Pidge can be a bit confusing. Depending on the point of view, Pidge is referred to as he or she. This reflects whether they know she's a girl or not and is on purpose, not typos. 
> 
> Again, there are moments where I fluidly skip from one pov to the next. This is another thing that's a creative choice on my part.
> 
> If you guys could leave a comment, big or small, I'd really appreciate it! This story has taken me such a long time to write, and I'd love to know what you think! 
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> **Chapter Edited By:[Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon) & [MsBlueBell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsBluebell/)**


	6. Of Survivors And Salvage Yards

Streaks of violent, violet light arched through the air, practically consuming Emperor Zarkon’s formidable form.

Haggar’s glowing yellow eyes looked to her Druids as they poured quintessence to their Emperor. They were a rare race, much like her own, that inherently knew quintessence like few other. A race that the Alteans failed to discover in the past, though whether it was willful ignorance or not, Haggar wasn’t sure. The Alteans were an arrogant race, displaying themselves like a pure, untarnished, metal, refusing to admit the ugly darkness beneath that they possessed. Not like her. Not like her Druids, for they all bowed down to her and her alone.

They were one of her greatest creations, turned from a pathetic group of beings into something that made the lesser species of the Empire shudder in terror. They weren’t enough though. They would never be enough.

Stagnation would make the Galra Empire weak, and she refused to allow that. Only constant advancement would work to make them stronger. Only _she_ could do that for her Emperor.

So she experimented, created, destroyed, and so much more.

“Sire,” she said, her voice low and calm, “the beast is almost to Arus.”

“This quintessence gives me so much power. With this, I could fight the Paladins myself,” Zarkon replied, his deep voice rumbling through the room.

Though Haggar knew that Zarkon’s might was great, she also knew of his limitations, of his downfalls, of his sheer arrogance. He was her Emperor, and she knew his strength, but she and she alone could also see the slight madness within him

He was strong, but to go against all five Paladins, one of whom was _her_ Champion, as well as their lions, would not result in success. Best not to tell him that though. "There is no need. My creature will destroy them and capture the Voltron Lions for you.”

That was a lie. Haggar had no intention of destroying the Paladins themselves. They could be injured, but she wanted them alive. The Champion showed so much potential, and the other Paladins were of the same species, it would be interesting to experiment on them as well. The other samples found with the Champion were either weak and feeble, and were sent away before she realized the value of them.

She looked to her Emperor again. “Then, the most powerful weapon in the universe will be ours."

…

“Jeez, this ship is huge,” Hunk said as he ran his hand across the metallic remnants of Sendak’s ship. It was entirely seamless and streamlined, definitely made to be physically intimidating, but not at all with comfort in mind for those that were once on it. Then again, from what the readings showed, as well as from what Pidge, Keith, and Shiro said, most of the crew were robotic sentries.

Still, for something that mostly housed _robots_ , everything was just so massive. “Do the Galra do everything bigger? Are they like Texans? Now I’m picturing their home world as Texas.”

Behind him, Shiro snorted. Hunk was glad that he didn’t have to travel alone through the wreck. Their goal was to determine how different this ship was compared to the schematics that Coran had. Given it was 5,000 years, Hunk would be _immensely_ surprised if they were the exact same. The fact that they were similar enough to have to do this spoke of an extremely alarming lack of progress in an advanced civilization.

Then again, maybe humans were just crazy like that, changing the way their entire world worked in the span of only a few years. Maybe the Galra thought their ships were fine and focused on other things.

“I don’t know what Texas is,” Coran said from over the comms, “but I can tell you that unless the Galra have colonized another planet, that’s unlikely. Daibazaal was destroyed over 5,000 years ago, before Altea.”

Hunk paused at that. “Oh, wow.” The Galra’s homeworld had been destroyed as well? As bad as they seemed, that was still terrible. Hunk sincerely doubted that an entire species could be evil or bad, and the thought of people losing their home that way made his heart ache for them. “What happened?”

There was a pause, and for a moment, Hunk wasn’t sure if that actually got through, but then Coran answered, “That’s a story for another time, Number Two.”

A frown passed over Hunk’s features as he stopped focusing on the ship before him. “But why? Hiding histories, and the past, is a terrible way to do things. That’s when people make mistakes that they could have avoided.” He shook his head. An unlearned lesson was one that was bound to repeat itself. He thought about it, and decided, “I think I’d like to learn as much as I can about the Galra.”

Coran was silent, and he was worried that he said something completely wrong, when Shiro spoke up. “I don’t remember much, but I do remember that a lot of people spoke of “Keistungz” when it came to the Galra. I’m not sure what it is, but based on context alone, I think it’s a place.”

“Sounds German,” Hunk blurted out, because to his ears, it did.

Then again, he was a Samoan-Malagasie-American boy. He didn’t exactly know a huge amount about languages that originated in Europe.

“It kind of does, doesn’t it?” Shiro asked, his eyebrows knitted together. “I guess that doesn’t translate to anything directly.”

Hunk nodded his head. From what he understood, when they entered the castle in the first place, it automatically scanned their brains, and _somehow_ (Pidge rambled on about the theoretical science behind the programming) was translating for them. Apparently the lions helped in that regard too. As long as they were in the castle, in their lions, or had their helmets on when outside, they’d hear anything that another species said in the languages that they were familiar with.

That was another thing that they were doing. Well, what Pidge was supposed to be doing. It was her job to see if there were any operating computers on this part of the ship to get any data from. Hopefully, they could update the castle’s libraries of what happened over the past 5,000 years, or at least update the language archives. Coran was also working on a more permanent solution for the translation-thing, should they not have their lions or helmets for some reason.

Wow, Hunk really needed to stop getting distracted by his thoughts. He looked towards the structure of the ship again and then back to Shiro. “The Galra, from what we’ve seen so far, seem pretty awful. But, like, I still want to know about them. Learn more about them, you know? Know your enemy? That kind of thing?” He waved his hands around. “Like, look at the engineering here! The Altean castle is crazy, but so is all of this! It’s very streamlined and practical too with none of that flair like zip lines and stuff.” God, he hated those zip lines and was so glad that he and Pidge were well on their way to figuring out how to avoid them. Then he realized that he was rambling. “Sorry, we’re here to look over the ship, not to listen to me.”

Shiro chuckled and shook his head, a warm smile on his face. “It’s alright. You clearly like these kinds of things–both how the ship is made, and about the people who made it. That’s a good thing, and it’s nice to hear about. Especially since I don’t really know much about you or Lance.” The last part sounded almost apologetic, but that was just dumb. Shiro had nothing to apologize about. They were all getting used to one-another.

Hunk didn’t mind sharing things about himself. “I _do_ like history and engineering a lot, but I also really love to cook too! I just figured engineering is the one I’d be more likely to make a living with, you know? I always cooked with my Tinā–my mom, and my sister, Sam. Then I’d go work on engines and stuff with my brother, Aleki.”

The older man hummed thoughtfully. “So you have a brother and a sister?”

“Two of each, actually,” he replied with a laugh. “That was one thing that Lance and I bonded over when we were assigned as roommates, we _both_ have four siblings. I mean, I’m smack in the middle, and he’s the baby of his family, but still! Sam…well her name is Samaria but we all call her Sam, is the oldest. Then there’s Aleki, then me, then my younger brother Eli, and my younger sister Talia.” Talking about his siblings made something twist in Hunk’s chest. God, he missed them all so much. He hadn’t seen them since summer, and he ignored his mother’s call the night before they left.

It really sucked.

“That’s a lot of siblings,” Shiro noted, thankfully breaking the silence.

The thought of his brothers and sister made Hunk sad, but it also made him smile. “Yeah, I miss them a lot.” He frowned again before glancing at Shiro. “Do you miss your family? Your parents?” Sure, Shiro might have Keith there, but didn’t he say something about a fiancé?

A sad smile spread over his face. “My parents actually passed away when I was younger from unrelated illnesses. My father by a genetic disease, and my mother from the Pandemic. She was a doctor, and on the front lines when that got bad a few years ago.” 

Hunk flinched at that. Oh god, he hadn’t meant to bring up bad memories like that. He kind of felt like throwing up. “Oh! Oh my god. I—uh—sorry.” It wasn’t exactly uncommon to hear that people lost family to the Pandemic (an outbreak of a disease said to be worse than any of those documented in the past according to the history books, even if a lot of information from some periods of time were lost). A lot of doctors had been lost while trying to help others, but still!

Shiro placed a hand on his shoulder, breaking him out of his frantic thoughts. “Don’t apologize. My past is my past. I miss my parents a lot, and their deaths impacted my life, but it’s okay to talk about them. Keeps them a little more alive. I’m actually very proud of both of them. My father lived his life to his fullest despite his disease, and my mother tried as hard as she could to save as many people as she could.” He smiled warmly.

“That’s…wow,” Hunk stared at Shiro with wide eyes. Was this guy for real? Hunk liked to think that he was a (generally) positive person (okay maybe not so much), but Shiro seemed larger than life. The Garrison’s Golden Boy, somehow survived the Galra for a year, heck, he borderline adopted a kid who _stole his car_ (Hunk was not, and would never be, over that). “I don’t think I could ever really talk about my parents that way if they passed away.” Just the _thought_ of them dying sent a spike of anxiety through him.

He blinked then his brow furrowed. “It wasn’t always like that. My mother passed when I was twelve, about a year before I started at the Garrison. I was really frustrated and lost, despite the fact that my foster family was nice enough. So they signed me up for a big brother program of sorts where people in the community came in to work with kids for an hour during the school day. The person they paired me with was exactly the kind of person I needed to be with. He was a firefighter, and helped me work out my anger over the loss a lot.”

Hunk perked up a bit at that. It was honestly kind of relieving to know that Shiro wasn’t _perfect_ . Also, another thing came to mind. “Hey, didn’t Keith say his dad was a firefighter too? And you fostered Keith? That’s a coincidence!” He paused at the look Shiro gave him, before his eyes went wide. “Oh wow, it’s _not_ , is it?”

“I looked him up again later on, I wanted to thank him, and found out that he passed away not long after he stopped working with me. Keith was only a kid when he passed, younger than I was when my dad died. I didn’t actually seek Keith out, it was his talent that caught my attention first.It was only _after_ I bailed him out after he stole my car that I found out who he was. In a way, it’s almost like what goes around comes around, but pretty literally in this case. It kind of felt like fate to me.”

“Sounds like it,” Hunk breathed out in awe. “Like, maybe fate or destiny is a real thing. I don’t know. Like maybe something orchestrated to bring us all together.”

“Maybe,” Shiro agreed as they walked into another room, this one filled with all kinds of neat gears and parts. God, Hunk loved engines. “Do you believe in that?”

“I dunno,” Hunk admitted, eyeing the way the gears were slotted together. It was familiar, but at the same time, so unfamiliar. “I mean, I know engineering and cooking’s like a science too but you also have to feel it, you know? I don’t _want_ to think we’re meant to be here, because I want to go back home, but maybe we are.”

Shiro stared at him thoughtfully before saying, “Maybe there’s something bigger at play, maybe there’s not. All we can really control though is here and now.”

Hunk appreciated that sentiment, he really did.

“This place is useless!” Pidge’s unhappy voice over the comms startled them both. “Any of the consoles left in here are completely destroyed, likely by some automated system. I’m going back to the castle.”

The two of them exchanged looks, not quite sure what to make of that.

…

Lance raised an eyebrow at Pidge’s outburst, watching as the little guy stormed by angrily. “Okay then.”

Keith hummed and turned away from Pidge’s retreating form to look down the hall. While Pidge had been fiddling with the computers to see if they were working at all, they’d been checking out other rooms, still staying close. Just in case. “It can be frustrating looking for information and not finding anything.”

He was a bit confused before realizing exactly what it was Keith was talking about. “Oh, right. His family.” He stretched out a bit and looked around. “Hmm. Do _you_ think the sentries and stuff have, like, an auto-shutdown or something when the ship was destroyed?”

“Could be. I wouldn’t want enemies to get a hold of it to try and hack it or something,” Keith said thoughtfully. “We probably destroyed a lot, but you’d think there would still be a few wandering around. They’re tough. Be on guard, just in case.” He looked over his shoulder towards Lance at the last part.

Lance straightened his shoulders, and waved his bayard around. “Don’t worry, I got this! Lancey-Lance will save the day if anything happens!” He finished off with a wink, then internally screamed a bit because what the ever-living hell was he doing?

He blinked with surprise when he saw Keith’s eyes narrowed just slightly, but not in a bad way. More like it was in response to the slight twitching of his lips. Was he fighting a smile? Lance was pretty sure he was, and took that as an instant victory.

Maybe that was why he continued to follow Keith farther into the ship as opposed to going back with Pidge. Lance was _pretty_ sure they’d seen everything the ship had to offer.

Yet, there Keith went, into another room. He sighed and walked after him, stopping at the door and watching as Keith meandered around the room, looking through different things. Then, much to Lance’s surprise, he started putting stuff in the bag that was slung across his shoulder. Coran had given one to all of them to carry back a few things, but there wasn’t anything here that was worth taking.

Or, at least, he thought there wasn’t. “What are you doing?”

“I think that’s obvious,” Keith said as he pulled out some strange packet, twisting it around in his hand, no doubt so that his helmet could scan and translate what it was. He nodded his head and put it in the bag.

“Stealing junk?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.

Keith paused for a moment before he shrugged. He didn’t bother to look up at him. “They’re not using it anymore, but we might be able to. There weren’t many people living here, but there might be food and stuff. Someone might as well use it.”

“Well, yeah,” Lance agreed. He wanted to argue on principle alone, but really, he’d come across as an idiot. “We have a lot of stuff at the castle though.”

“A 5,000-year-old castle,” Keith replied, and looked at him pointedly. “This stuff is all new, whatever it is. For all we know, this might be better for us.” He looked through a few more things before he seemingly decided that he had everything of value from the room. “Besides, it’s always good to keep as much as you can. You never know when you might lose your…primary resources.” Keith hesitated, a bit of bitterness creeping into his tone.

Lance blinked, suddenly recalling that Keith was expelled from the Garrison last spring, and they’d come across him at the beginning of November. That entire time, he was out in the desert, seemingly alone. Lance heard him mention an ‘Adam’ at one point, though he had no idea who that was. The only Adam he could think of was Professor Ward. Anyway, that was a long time to be alone without anything or anyone.

He silently followed Keith out of the room and into another one, watching as he silently went through stuff before deciding that it wasn’t a bad idea at all. He heard Keith pause and swore that he could feel those strange violet (not grey, like he’d always thought) eyes burning into the back of his skull. When he looked over his shoulder, Keith was once again minding his own business.

“Huh,” Lance muttered as he picked up what looked a lot like cloth. “Wonder if they have clothes and stuff.”

“You’d use it?” Keith asked skeptically.

“I’m used to hand-me-downs,” Lance blurted out. “I’m the youngest of five, and it’s not like my family is super wealthy or anything.” His mind screeched to a halt as he realized just _what_ he admitted to his _rival_. He really hated his brain sometimes. Then again, Keith lived in a shack so it wasn’t like he could judge.

Instead of ribbing him or anything though, Keith asked, “Five? That’s…a lot.” There was a tone of wonder to his voice that had Lance once again looking around at him. Keith seemed almost awestruck at the idea of having so many siblings.

Once again, he was brought back to the night before where Shiro mentioned basically adopting Keith, after the 12-year-old stole his car. What kind of life did you have to A) know how to drive, and B) have the will to actually go through with stealing a car at 12? Lance was very sure that his biggest issue at that age was fighting with Marco for computer time.

Lance couldn’t imagine a life without his family. “Yup, there are five of us.” He held up one finger. “Luis, who’s already married and has two kids. Veronica, you may have seen her around the Garrison, I’m pretty sure she’s the same age as Shiro. Marco, who is stoned more often than not. Rachel, who most people think is my twin but she’s actually a year older than me and makes sure I remember it. Then there’s me.” He was holding up all five fingers when he realized he had been rambling to _Keith_ . To his _rival_. “Sorry.” What kind of loser was he, rambling about his siblings when they were on another planet?

Instead of making fun of him though, Keith simply shrugged. “We’re just digging through stuff. You can talk about them.”

The first thing Lance felt was suspicion, because what was Keith up to? Did he want information on him or something? Then again, how could he use that against him when they were in space? The second thing was longing, because he _wanted_ to talk about his family.

Maybe that was why he let himself chatter on as they moved from room to room, looting the ship like it was some kind of in-game prize or something. He talked about Luis and Lisa’s restaurant, Rachel working at a flower shop that their Abuela owned and hoped to take over one day, Marco being a ‘free spirit’ and going from job to job. He talked about the farm back at home, unable to hide his distaste for it.

It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate what his family did. The farm belonged to his mother’s family, and they were all proud of it. It was a lot of hard work and was nothing to scoff at. It really just wasn’t for him. Ever since he was a little boy, he’d wanted more. He couldn’t imagine what would have to happen to make him go back.

In the middle of rambling on, Lance caught sight of Keith and realized that the other boy was staring at him. The expression on his face made Lance’s heart leap and his cheeks burn. He quickly looked away, trying to figure out what _that_ was. Embarrassment! Yes, that’s what it was. Yup. He was completely embarrassed about babbling so much. That was the only thing that made sense.

Clearing his throat, Lance said, “Um, yeah, so, lets, you know…” He trailed off and looked around desperately, realizing that they'd had come to the end of the line in the ship, with two rooms at either side of the corridor. “So, wanna split up to get this over quickly?”

Keith blinked and tilted his head slightly before shrugging. “Sure.”

He was about to go in the room on the right when Lance suddenly bolted forward and said, “I’m taking this one, Mullet! And I bet that I can find more stuff than _you_.”

Both of Keith’s eyebrows shot up before furrowing again as his eyes narrowed, and wow, Lance always thought that Keith was completely stoic and completely stone-faced, but nope, he was apparently super expressive. How had he never noticed that before?

Keith scoffed and said, “You’re on.”

Instantly, a familiar competitive fire erupted within Lance, and he _threw_ himself into the room and started looking around. He figured that if Keith chose this room first, it was probably the one with the most stuff in it, and it certainly looked like a storage room of sorts.

He actually did love this, competing with Keith and having him actually _respond_ to him in turn. No matter how often Lance tried to get his attention back in the Garrison—to compete with him, of course—Keith always seemed to ignore him. Now that he had the attention that he craved, Lance was _thriving_. He loved the competition, the acknowledgement that he was good enough to compete with. It made him feel almost giddy, like he was finally getting a little bit of validation.

Oddly enough though, instead of feeling content with this current status quo that they started to form yesterday, Lance felt the need to push himself further, to do better. It was really weird, and Lance couldn’t explain it for the life of him, but he liked it anyway.

Most of the boxes in the storage room were actually empty, and Lance was starting to wonder if some things were set up for show, which screamed of a trap, but at the same time _why_ would the Galra do that? It didn’t seem like there was anyone fighting against them for them to try and trap or anything.

“Sendak’s a messy packrat,” Lance said out loud, and for some reason, picturing some tall, purple, bat-like man being a packrat actually made him chuckle.

He turned, and promptly tripped over one of the crate-like things that were there, causing it to fall over with a loud bang and a totally, completely manly yelp.

“Cheese and crackers,” Lance groaned. Bless his armour.

“You okay?” Keith asked, peering in through the door with wary eyes.

“Yup! Perfectly fine!” Lance posed on the floor. “Just testing how quick your reflexes were to help a teammate.”

“I’m sure,” Keith replied sarcastically, and picked up one of the things that tumbled out of the fallen crate. “Huh, looks like you found rations, and a lot of it.”

“I did?” Lance asked, before swiftly standing up and puffing out his chest. “I mean, of course I did! Galra might eat them but it’d be good to have, right?”

“Yeah, good job.” Good _fucking_ god, that small smile made Lance melt a little bit inside and he wanted to see it on Keith’s face every day, please and thank you.

Wait, what?

Keith tried to pick up the crate, but grunted from the weight of it. “This thing is _heavy_.”

“Well,” Lance said, dragging out the L. “I mean, I _could_ help you out with it.”

“You _sure_ you can handle it?”

He bristled a bit at that. “I’m all muscle!” Lance motioned to himself, Keith eyes following the movement of his hand. An almost sly smirk appeared on the other boy’s face. He hummed, but whether it was in agreement or disbelief, Lance couldn’t tell. He chose to go on the defensive. “I am! I mean, we can’t all be Shiro!” He helped Keith push, managing to first get the crate upright, and then, together, they lifted it up.

“Thank god for that,” Keith muttered. Lance raised an eyebrow, and he clarified, “What? He’s my _brother_. If everyone were him, I’d be in trouble.”

Lance thought about that for a moment, being surrounded by multiple versions of any of his siblings and shuddered. He really felt like he understood Keith on a truly emotional level in that regard.

…

There was a smile on Shiro’s face. He liked to think that he was a relatively simple man, and that it didn’t take much to make him happy. To him, they had a relatively good day with first checking out the part of Sendak’s ship that was closest to the castle, and then training within Voltron.

It was _strange_ to feel everyone else the way he could when they were Voltron. It was like they were all a part of one another for a brief moment. It also meant that he could feel when things weren’t quite right.

Still, as they went up the elevator, heading towards the dining room as requested of them earlier (“You need to train, then meet us for lunch,” Allura all but ordered them.), Shiro felt proud of the young men that were with him. They were inexperienced, and a bit immature, but he just _knew_ that they were all going to be amazing.

"Great job training today, guys. We're really getting the hang of Voltron,” Shiro said as he cast his eyes over the three boys with him.

Lance instantly sent a smirk Keith’s way and said, “How far do you think I kicked that broken alien ship? Must have been like a mile!"

Keith scoffed a bit and crossed his arms. “Yeah, that’ll come in handy when the Galra challenges Voltron to a soccer match."

"Hey, I did something cool and you can't handle it. I get it."

Shiro looked over their heads, meeting Hunk’s amused eyes. These two were absolutely ridiculous.

"Your kick ruined our balance,” Keith pointed out seriously. “We fell."

Lance opened and closed his mouth for a moment before quickly saying, “The falling part was Hunk’s fault.”

“Hey!” Hunk scowled at the two of them as they entered the massive dining room. It was clearly meant to be some form of formal meeting room or something, but Allura and Coran seemed to want to eat there rather than in the kitchen or anything.

“Alright,” Shiro interrupted quickly, not wanting a _real_ argument to break out and ruin their overall good mood “Save your energy for fighting Zarkon.”

The doors to the dining room slid open behind them as Coran came in, a cart filled with food floating in behind him. “Just in time! How was the Voltron workout?”

A part of Shiro really had to wonder _why_ Coran and Allura put the word ‘Voltron’ or ‘Paladin’ in front of everything as a descriptor. It honestly didn’t make much sense, and he was pretty sure that they were making things up to make them sound more important. He shrugged that aside. "We're getting there.” They were doing everything they could, and he was proud of them, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure it was enough. “Are you and Allura almost done fixing the Castle so we can leave this planet? I feel like we're sitting ducks here on Arus."

“Just about,” Coran assured him with an enthusiastic smile. “In the meantime, to get your minds off those duck seats you're worried about, I made you guys an authentic ancient Paladin lunch!"

Duck...seats? Okay then. And there was the Paladin-thing again. Seriously, what was _with_ that?

While he contemplated this, Coran unveiled the food that he made, holding it out towards the three hungry boys. Shiro’s eyebrows both shot up when Keith _actually_ recoiled from it, bumping into Lance, who looked _just_ as grossed out. In turn, Lance shoved Keith back towards the plate, but he quickly moved behind Hunk, actually hiding away from it.

The injury to his nose severely limited Shiro’s sense of smell, and as a result, his sense of taste as well. It was moments like this that he was grateful for that, because if Keith was being so dramatic about it, it _had_ to smell awful. Shiro could _still_ see the small, malnourished boy (who gave most of his food to the smaller, younger kids at the group home), that Shiro took in. He ate whatever was put in front of him.

Except for this, apparently.

“Coran,” Hunk protested, “You just got me hooked on that goo and now you're switching it up?"

“This is packed with nutrients!” Coran protested. That was actually a nice thought, that the man was doing everything he could to try and help them out, including keeping them healthy and well-fed.

Hunk sniffed the plate, his face twisting. “It smells disgusting!”

“I know!” the Altean, surprisingly, agreed. “That’s how you know it’s healthy.”

Hunk pulled an alien plant out of one of the little pouches attached to his uniform. “Coran, we’re on a planet right now with fresh herbs, spices, and whatever this thing is. Not to mention Keith and Lance lifted a ton of stuff from the Galra ship. We have options! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head back to the kitchen and spice things up.” He spun around, pointing at Keith and Lance. “You guys wait here. You’re my taste testers."

“Yeah!” Lance cried out excitedly. “Go Hunk! We believe in you!” Hunk waved at him as he left. Lance practically flounced to the table, and Shiro couldn’t help but smile a bit as Keith chose to sit beside him. He didn’t seem at all put off by this, turning to him and saying, “Hunk’s cooking is _the_ best. Even rivals my Mamá’s!”

“I already miss takeout burgers,” Keith admitted with a groan, slumping forward slightly.

“Oh man,” Lance sighed. “That old fashioned style place in Garrison City is amazing, with the milkshakes? And the fries!”

“Ugh, stop it,” Keith groaned. “I would _give_ Red to Zarkon for that right now.”

“Excuse me?” Coran asked, already put-off by their dislike of his Paladin Lunch, and now positively alarmed by Keith’s words.

“It’s a joke,” Shiro assured him. “He wouldn’t, and that’s not healthy anyway. We need to stay in shape.”

He _instantly_ regretted his words when Keith glanced up at him with that familiar, dead-eyed look. “When Adam was gone for a week we lived off of instant ramen noodles, Froot Loops, and Kool-Aid that nearly made me diabetic.”

Lance snorted loudly from where he too slumped against the table.

Shiro cleared his throat and looked around the room, desperate to change the conversation. “Where’s Pidge?” He turned his eyes towards Coran, who was eating that strange, probably awful food.

“I saw him heading towards the infirmary. He’s probably checking on the prisoners we rescued. They’ll be waking soon,” Coran answered through a mouthful of food.

Shiro grimaced a little bit, both at the food, and at the fact that Pidge deliberately avoided the lunch Allura wanted them to be at. As much as Lance and Keith seemed to step on one another’s toes, Shiro couldn’t feel any genuine hatred or hostility between them. Annoyance, taking things the wrong way, saying things at the wrong times, and stuff like that could change over time. He wasn’t worried about them getting into a brawl or anything like that. No, Shiro was pretty confident in the right side of Voltron, they’d work things out over time.

It was the left side that he was worried about. Hunk was on his way, and Shiro knew that he was going to be great, but Pidge, she was off in a world all of her own. It genuinely made him worry. He knew that they could all feel the strain, the distance with Voltron’s left arm.

Shiro also knew that Pidge was younger than at least Hunk and Lance knew. That they all had that bit of immaturity that came with being a teenager to them, but Pidge was younger still. He also knew that she was focused on her family. He understood that. He wanted to find Matt and Sam too.

She was just going about it the wrong way.

He sighed and went to leave when Coran shoved a spork full of some gross-looking yellow mush that he _could_ smell faintly. It was a putrid smell, and if he could get a whiff of it, Shiro instantly understood why Keith and Lance had been so dramatic about it.

“Open the hatch! Food lion coming in!” Coran said happily, making airplane sounds.

“No, just no,” Shiro replied, quickly leaving the room.

“None of you appreciate a good meal!” Coran called out behind him, but Shiro ignored him, making his way through the halls of the castle.

They’d only been in the castle a few days now, but he already mapped out common routes to use from one place to the next. It was one of the things that he’d always been good at. The castle was huge, but he could already see how there were only a few areas they’d likely stay in for the most part.

Just as Coran said, Shiro found Pidge inside of the med bay, impatiently waiting by the healing pods. They were truly miraculous things; light-years ahead of what Earth could do. His mother gave her life to help people, so she probably would have been fascinated by the healing pods.

He turned his thoughts to Pidge, who was tapping her leg on the floor. Just watching her made his own nerves creep up. One alien called him the Champion, whatever that meant. Just thinking the words sent shivers up his spine, and Pidge’s twitching and shifting didn’t help at all.

“You’re as anxious as me,” he noted, trying to lighten the air around them.

“These aliens know _something_ about my family,” she insisted without hesitation, eyes glued to the healing pods. “They have to.”

Worry tugged at Shiro’s chest, because there was a very real possibility that they knew nothing about Pidge’s family. A year was a long time for things to happen, and it’s possible he met these aliens when he was separated from her family. Still, he wanted to be hopeful. “I hope so.”

“They recognized you, didn’t they?” she asked, instantly on the defensive. Pidge turned her attention entirely to him. “They called you ‘Champion’. What does that even _mean_?"

“I don’t know,” Shiro admitted with a frown. “I genuinely can’t remember much. It’s all just feelings and flashes right now, but with the way they looked at me, I’m not sure I want to find out.”

Pidge opened her mouth to respond, but stopped when the pod hissed as it opened. Shiro held his breath, knowing that he was going to get some of his answers whether he was ready for it or not.

…

His stomach was going to eat itself from the inside out. Of course, he’d been in situations in his life where he’d been borderline literally starving, not just super hungry like he was now, but that didn’t mean that he had to be okay with the gnawing in his stomach. Keith _would_ have gone to the kitchen to get some of the food goo, but Hunk asked them to wait.

Keith wasn’t generally a picky person, outside of things that he was pretty sure would kill him to eat, but food goo really wasn’t sitting all that well with him. It was the only thing they seemed to have for the most part, so he’d force it down, but it took a lot. Even so, he’d take the food goo over whatever it was Coran was trying to feed them.

He turned back to the conversation at hand. While waiting for Hunk to come back, Coran had taken a seat across from him and Lance, and started talking about the Galra. Well, the Galra from 5,000 years ago.

It was _genuinely_ interesting, and surprisingly unbiased. He spoke of both good and bad things about the species as he knew it so long ago.

“Galra have a very strong sense of family,” Coran explained, and that was honestly a bit surprising. No one expected the species that conquered most of the known universe to even have families.

“Really? So like, they have a lot of kids?” Lance asked, folding his hands under his chin to prop it up, blue eyes wide with genuine interest.

Coran shook his head. “Actually, no. It’s _incredibly_ rare for Galra to have multiple children. Most that can carry can only do-so once. Their pregnancies last a measly decaphoeb, and the birth generally makes it impossible to carry another. It should come as no surprise that Galran mothers are fiercely protective of their young. It would have to take something _incredibly_ serious and important for a mother to leave her child behind. Not to say that fathers aren’t as well.”

“Woah, that’s crazy. I have a huge family, and it’s not an uncommon thing,” Lance explained. “Hunk’s got four siblings too, and it’s more common to find people with two or more kids than just one these days.” He suddenly frowned. “So like, does that mean male Galra could have kids with a bunch of female ones?”

“It’s not so much male or female with Galra,” Coran corrected him. “Most pure Galra are born intersex, and the hormonal development in adolescence, which can be impacted by external factors, decides which system becomes the dominant one. As you can imagine, deciding whether one is a male or female happens before that.”

Keith blinked at that. Aliens were _so_ fascinating. He couldn’t imagine being like that.

“But to your point, no, that a Galra that can impregnate would be very unlikely to find another partner. You see, Galra mate for life. Should they lose their families or, for some reason, be separated from them, they can develop severe…abandonment issues, I suppose. It depends on what stage of life they’re at. That case would be more towards children,” the Altean explained. He frowned. “A Galra’s devotion to their partner can be a good or bad thing. Good, because you will _never_ find a partner more loyal than a Galra. Bad, because in some cases, it can lead to obsession and a lack of rational thought.” From the frown on his face, Keith got the feeling that Coran had actually seen both scenarios before.

Honestly, Keith could _relate_ to the Galra in that sense. He’d always been a bit fascinated by families, and jealous of those who had them. His mother abandoning him as a baby, his father dying, foster parents and teachers giving up on him, Shiro vanishing, and Adam’s emotional withdrawal all impacted him a lot.

Keith wouldn’t admit it, but a part of him always did long for some form of family. He also accepted that it wasn’t likely in the cards for him in any form. The parent aspect ended up going horribly, he felt like he was grasping at strings to keep the person he saw as a brother close, and he could barely make friends, let alone find someone that he liked who might actually like him back.

Coran suddenly cleared his throat, his chipper voice coming back as he kept talking. “Occasionally, Galra _do_ have multiple children. This is more commonly seen within half-Galra or less, but it still counts. Anyway, I’ve been told that, when Galra who are related find one another, they’ll often have a feeling, an instinctual urge to protect or aid that person, even if they don’t know they’re related. From what I understand, it avoids accidental in-breeding since many look alike. Or seem to be different species, but are actually related.”

Keith’s eyebrows shot up at that, because how the hell did _that_ work? Lance spoke up before he could, but with a different, albeit good, point. “Woah woah, wait.” He waved his hands in the air. “Galra can have kids with _other_ aliens?”

“With a surprisingly wide variety of them, yes,” Coran agreed. “Galra usually need an emotional connection before they can even think of procreation, but their genetics are wildly adaptive, and they can generally have children with mammalian, humanoid species. You won’t see them with a cosmic wolf or anything, but Olkari, Drule, even Alteans, happened in the past. Amongst many more.”

“Woah,” Lance breathed out, and Keith could agree with that sentiment entirely. “Can Alteans?”

Keith was torn between wanting to roll his eyes and being genuinely interested, so he held his tongue to listen to Coran.

He waved his spoon full of nasty food around (seriously, how did he eat that?) and said, “In the past, no. Galra were the only exception. You see, Alteans actually have the ability to shape shift and—”

“What?” Both Keith and Lance blurted out at the same time.

Coran chuckled and concentrated, his skin turning a bright shade of orange to match his moustache, his Altean markings still visible. “As children, Alteans can choose our biological sex, switch back and forth to see what fits us best, but once we reach adolescence, whatever we chooses sticks, and the only changes we can make to ourselves are more…cosmetic in a sense. Skin, hair, eyes, height and the like.” He changed back to normal. “We also have a ‘default’, so to speak, based on what our parents looked like, of course. I’ve been told I’m the spitting image of my great Auntie Prudence.”

“We can still see your marks here,” Lance pointed out, tapping the area on his cheekbone just below the corner of his eye.

“Yes, unless I make my skin match them, they’ll always be there. Stories say that the marks by our eyes were from where the Ancients first touched us to bless us with the ability to use quintessence. Some say that if an Altean abuses quintessence too much it changes their marks, though I’m not so sure about that. Magic wasn’t my area of expertise like Alfor or Ho…other people,” Coran explained with a smile, he very clearly loved talking about Alteans, and just seemed to like telling stories in general.

“So for Galra to be able to have kids with other species, does that mean they’re more like them, more like _us_ , than you are?” Keith asked, trying to word it in a way that wouldn’t offend Coran.

Lance scoffed at that. “No way a Galra could have a kid with a human.”

“Actually, from what I’ve seen of your scans, it _is_ a possibility,” Coran admitted, his eyes flitting to Keith before looking back to Lance.

“What scans?” Keith asked, brow furrowing.

“When you first entered the castle, you were scanned. It didn’t just pick up on your languages to translate,” the Altean explained. “It does that to everyone, mostly for research purposes. But yes, Galra are the most adaptive species we’ve ever come across on a genetic level. They evolve to different environments and different species very quickly.”

“No way a human-Galra wouldn’t get snapped up by the Garrison,” Lance pointed out, still struggling with the concept.

Coran clicked his tongue, fiddling with the edge of his moustache. “Don’t be so sure. More often than not, half-Galra favour their non-Galra parent.” A sudden sad expression crossed his face. “I once held a little boy who was half-Galra, half-Altean. Poor little thing, we barely saved him before he was lost with his Altean mother. Aside from his purple skin and yellow sclera, he looked Altean. Most look almost entirely like their non-Galra half.”

That was _super_ weird to think about, but it also made the Galra _incredibly_ dangerous, Keith realized. Someone could have been a half-Galra, raised with the wrong kind of ideation, and used as a spy or to infiltrate because no one knew what they were.

Before they could grill Coran anymore about the Galra, Hunk came back into the room with the same kind of floating cart that Coran had earlier. Instead of a putrid smell that had Keith dramatically recoiling, the smells that reached him made his stomach growl loudly, and he wasn’t even ashamed.

“Tuck in!” Hunk said happily as he set plates in front of them. “I tried some in the kitchen and I think it’s good.”

Keith didn’t hesitate to start eating, and he almost felt like crying. It was probably the _best_ thing that he ever tasted in his life.

“Hunk,” he said seriously, shielding his plate from Lance’s spork because he might just stab him to protect this food. “Marry me.”

Hunk burst into laughter and said, “It’s good then?”

Once again shoving his mouth full of food, Keith nodded his head.

“Seriously, man,” Lance piped up from beside him. “I’m _actually_ with Keith here. If I had to marry a dude…”

This time though, Hunk rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I seriously doubt I’d be your first choice of dudes.”

Keith raised an eyebrow at that, while Lance looked genuinely confused, now completely distracted. “What…does _that_ mean?”

“Oh, nothing,” Hunk replied, his voice teasing.

While Lance was distracted by this, Keith quickly swiped something that looked kind of like a green fried egg from his plate. It didn’t matter what it looked like, because it tasted amazing. Lance caught onto this _just_ as he put it in his mouth. “What the—give it back!”

At first, Keith stared at him blankly, because what the fuck? Since he hadn’t started chewing yet though, he brought his hand up to his mouth and spat the food back into it, holding it out. “I mean, if you want it.”

The noise that escaped Lance’s lips made it really hard not to laugh. “That’s _disgusting_ .” He shuffled away slightly, but given that he was still sitting on the same chair, it wasn’t that far. “I want absolutely _nothing_ to do with your spit.”

Keith was going to leave it alone, he was, but he couldn’t help himself. He narrowed his eyes slightly at Lance, a purposeful smirk crossing his lips. “That’s too bad.” He popped the egg back into his mouth and chewed it.

Hunk covered his mouth with his hand, shoulders shaking. Lance spluttered, clearly not knowing how to respond. “Wh—why would—I—what does _that_ mean?”

Keith snickered a bit as he stood to put his plate back on the floating cart that Hunk brought in. “Straight boys,” he muttered under his breath, earning a snort from the Yellow Paladin. He wasn’t _actually_ sure if Lance was straight or not, but it certainly came across that way for the most part.

Almost to prove this point, Lance’s attention _instantly_ snapped to Allura when she walked into the room. Keith looked towards Hunk, who rolled his eyes.

Allura glanced up from the device in her hand, her features lighting up. It was better to see that, than her angry, annoyed one, because it meant that she wasn’t going to yell at them. “They like the Paladin lunch!”

Coran scoffed, and with the arrival of the food, Keith _genuinely_ forgot that he was there. Though he got the feeling that the annoyance on his face had nothing to do with that, and more to do with the food. Allura stared at him with confusion, and he said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

The Princess regarded her advisor for a moment skeptically, before she turned to face them. “I just got the final nebulon booster working. We should be able to leave Arus tomorrow and take the fight to Zarkon."

It took everything Keith had not to scoff. Yes, they definitely needed to get off of this planet, they were far too vulnerable here, and Keith was all for taking the fight to the bad guys, but there was no way that they were ready to take on _Zarkon_. Not yet. Keith was more of a plan-as-you-go kind of guy, but even he knew it would be a bad idea to go after him right now.

Before he could protest, the castle’s alarm suddenly went off, causing him to tense. Given that Allura and Coran were both there, this wasn’t likely to be a test.

Allura brought her hand up, a screen appearing as she did, which, what? She could do that _anywhere_ ? How did that work? Whatever, that didn’t matter. What mattered was that there was a small creature inching towards the castle. “What is _that_?” It was a small creature with ram-like horns, but that didn’t say much.

“I’m not sure,” Allura admitted. “Perhaps a local Arusian.”

Whatever he was, he was approaching the castle.

“Aw!” Hunk suddenly gushed, startling Keith a bit. “He’s just a little guy!”

“He doesn’t look dangerous,” Lance added.

Never mind, Keith didn’t want to marry Hunk anymore. What did it matter if the creature was _small_ ? It _definitely_ had a weapon with it, and yeah, it looked a bit crude, but it was still visibly sharp, likely bigger than his own dagger. “Just because something’s small doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous.” He summoned his bayard into his hand.

Just because something looked small and innocent didn’t mean that it was. Sure, that was what most people saw, but sometimes sweet smiles and crocodile tears were masks hiding something ugly underneath.

“Absolutely not,” Allura said sternly. She glared at him, tilting her chin up slightly. “Alteans believe in _peace_ first. Let’s go welcome them.” She turned to leave with Coran at her side.

Keith bit his cheek to stop himself from pointing out that they weren’t Altean, fingers flexing around his bayard. He kept his thoughts to himself for once.

“Hey!” Lance perked up as he started following Allura and Coran. “Maybe we can knit him a little sweater!”

“That’s adorable!” Hunk cooed as he followed.

Keith scowled at both of them. Fine, he’d be the skeptical one for now.

He followed everyone else out to the front of the castle, not understanding how Allura could just flounce outside without any suspicions at all.

The small creature caught sight of them and dove behind a boulder as they approached, not doing a very good job of keeping himself out of sight.

“Greetings,” Allura called out to him. “We know you're there. No harm will come to you."

There was a pause, and the creature leapt out from behind the boulder, its sharp weapon in front of it, pointed directly at the Princess. Hunk cooed at it, and Lance was staring at it like it was a teddy bear.

What the hell was wrong with everyone?

Keith stepped forward so that he was slightly in front of Allura, bayard in hand, narrowing his eyes. “Drop your weapon.”

“No one takes Klaizap’s weapon!” the creature replied, waving it around.

Allura grabbed Keith’s bayard, fingers wrapping around the hilt just above his hand, prompting him to glance over at her. It wasn’t hard, since she was practically on top of him. “Keith, put it away!” She tugged at his hand, like she was about to take his bayard from him.

Keith scowled at her, but let his hand fall, bayard vanishing. It didn’t matter. He could already tell that he was faster than this creature, so if it jumped, he’d be able to get his weapon back.

She stepped away from him slightly, looking at the creature again. “Please, kind sir, accept my most humble apologies." _Really_ ? She was apologizing because he was suspicious? What the _fuck_?

If all Alteans were like this, he could see why they weren’t around anymore. And that was probably, definitely a thought that he should keep to himself for the rest of his life.

“I am Klaizap, bravest of our warriors. Our village is over Gazrel Hill.” He pointed his weapon, still in hand, towards the hill not far from them. “I come seeking answers as to why the Goddess is angered with her followers."

“Followers?” Coran repeated, clearly confused.

“Goddess?” Hunk wondered.

Klaizap pointed towards a carving that honestly reminded Keith of Egyptian-styled hieroglyphs. It looked like a humanoid in robes and long hair, little carvings of Arusians bowing down to it. Having gone out of one of the other castle exits earlier, none of them noticed the carving before.

Allura’s lips pursed slightly as she looked back at Klaizap. “What makes you think she’s angered?”

"Destruction is everywhere. In the past few suns, fire has rained from the heavens and a giant has danced in the sky!” the Arusian said, pointing up at the sky.

“I think he’s talking about Voltron,” Hunk whispered to Lance.

“Yeah, I got that.”

“Or maybe the castle shooting at everything yesterday during ‘training’,” Keith pointed out, looking at the scorch marks left behind by Allura firing at them the day before.

The Princess looked genuinely startled by the suggestion, her eyes going wide when she realized what he was implying. For a species that apparently was all ‘peace first’, she hadn’t considered the local environment _at all_ the day before.

Guilt flitted over her features, and Allura turned towards the little alien. “You have not angered the Goddess.”

“How can you be sure?” Klaizap asked, his voice low and shaky, as if her very words could make or break everything. Maybe they could.

“My name is Allura,” she explained to him. “This is my castle, and—“

Before she could get another word out, the Arusian gasped loudly and bowed to her, face actually touching the dirt, weapon placed on the ground between them. “Goddess!”

Allura blinked before looking back at them, entirely clueless in a way they had yet to see her. Keith could kind of see where Klaizap was coming from though. Allura _did_ sort of resemble the Goddess depicted. Actually, it was probably designed after her. It would have made sense for the Arusians to explore the castle as best as they could, and someone probably saw Allura’s silhouette in the sleeping chamber before.

She got her bearings back quickly, and said, “Please, bravest warrior, take us to your village so that we may meet our neighbors." Klaizap perked up at this, eyes practically sparkling.

What? “What about our mission to get off this planet and fight Zarkon?" Not that he thought they could fight Zarkon right now, but she’d been so gung-ho about this whole thing that suddenly wanting to do something else was kind of startling.

“Part of the Paladins' mission is to spread peace and diplomacy,” Allura said to him, as if speaking to a small child. “Arus has been our host for 5,000 years. These people deserve our thanks."

It _definitely_ would have been rude to point out that, no, Arus had not been _their_ host for 5,000 years.

“Yeah Keith,” Lance elbowed him. “Chill out a bit. The Princess knows what she’s talking about.” He smirked at her, and she scowled in response.

Everyone started following Klaizap towards the hill, but Keith had to take a minute to calm himself down. He closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and rubbed his thumb back and forth against his index finger until he could center himself enough to follow them.

…

Pidge couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated. When the prisoners woke up, she tried to start asking them questions, but apparently coming out of the healing pods made them groggy and cold, so they had to get them all comfortable first. Seriously, what kind of healing technology didn’t have people ready to go the second they popped out? She had _questions._

At the same time though, she wasn’t heartless. She could actually feel the chill from their bodies as she helped wrap a few of them in blankets. And yeah, they probably didn’t get any kind of proper sleep in there, but _still_.

The one that seemed to know Shiro introduced himself as Xi. She wasn’t sure if it was his actual name, or if it was something assigned to him or not, but decided not to ask that. Instead, she started with, “How long were you held captive by Zarkon?” Shiro was giving her a _look_ , but she didn’t see anything wrong with the question.

“Some of us longer than others” Xi answered, holding the blankets close to him, “hectophoebs, perhaps. It’s hard to tell. Time becomes a blur.”

Pidge very quickly translated that in her head. Given that a decaphoeb was a single year (or ten months give or take), a hectophoeb must have been about ten years, similar to a decade. Or rather, a hundred months. It made her insides squirm nervously. That was a long time to be a prisoner.

That also meant that they _kept_ their prisoners for a long time though, so that was a bonus. And this guy was there for a long time. "Then you must have been there when my dad and brother arrived. Sam and Matt Holt?"

Xi frowned at her sympathetically, and it made her insides squirm. “You must understand, young one, the Galra Empire is vast and ancient. It is impossible for all prisoners to know one another. However, I _do_ remember the boy that arrived with the Champion.”

“Champion,” Shiro interrupted, his voice filled with curiosity, “ _why_ do you keep calling me that?”

Xi stared at him, eyes searching for whatever truth there was there. “You truly don’t remember, do you? That’s unbelievable!” His voice rose up, and all of the other aliens listened with rapt attention. “You were a legendary gladiator, undefeated in the ring. Your first victory was against an infamous Galra gladiator known as Myzax. It led to a stream of victories that earned you the name ‘Champion’. You even had the favour of Zarkon’s witch.”

Pidge watched Shiro’s eyes narrow slightly, his prosthetic hand twitching. She remembered back to when he just _tore_ through the Galra sentries without any difficulty, and something twisted in her stomach.

Shiro might have his doubts, but already, she didn’t.

“I was there, that first time, as was another young Earthling.”

Pidge perked up, and Shiro _froze_. “Did he look like me?

Xi looked her over and nodded. “There is quite the strong resemblance. He must be your kin, yes?”

“Yes! My brother!” Pidge exclaimed excitedly, but then frowned. “Wait, it was _just_ him? My father wasn’t there?”

The alien shrugged. “The elderly are often taken to farms to work, unless the Galra find another way to use them.” The others nodded in agreement, sad looks passed around. A lot of them, if not all of them, probably lost family members in one way or another.

That thought made Pidge’s heart feel heavy. So many people had lost so much already. She _couldn’t_ lose her family to the same thing because, well, it was _hers’_. It was completely unthinkable.

Xi turned back to Shiro and continued his story, “Gladiators are most often prisoners, forced to fight to the death for the entertainment of the Galra Elite. It’s quite common for half-Galra to end up in the arena as well, though most of them are treated much better. It’s always said that the Galra half they were blessed with makes them stronger, more superior. The day we went into the arena, the first of us was set to fight Myzax, a vile, supposedly half-Galra beast many thought could never be defeated. Slaughter awaited us all. The young Earthling was set to be the first of us to fight him. Fate had other plans.”

Shiro suddenly pressed his fingers to the corners of his eyes as he grimaced and gritted his teeth, as if remembering something particularly unpleasant.

Xi didn’t seem to catch onto this at all (which was saying something, because Pidge rarely ever caught onto social cues like that), and continued his story. “You were _so_ thirsty for blood and glory, you injured your fellow Earthling.”

Pidge’s head snapped to Shiro, pure anger rushing through her. Her fingers curled into fists, and she wanted to scream at him. She wanted to hit him. “You attacked my brother? Why?” Her voice rose with anger.

“That can’t be true,” he insisted, sounding more than a little confused. Now Pidge was wondering if he was _actually_ confused, or if he was just playing them all so that he didn’t have to admit what he did.

“I was there,” Xi insisted, as if that answered everything. “Many others saw it as well. It was used as promotional material for you.”

It took her a moment to get herself together before Pidge demanded, “Where was my brother taken? Where do injured Gladiators go?”

“Victors are taken to heal in hospitals, but those injured before? I’m not sure. Perhaps taken for labour work as well. Perhaps disposed of.”

Pidge was going to scream. She was going to cry. This _wasn’t_ how this was supposed to go. She was supposed to get a solid answer, then go off into space, hack her way onto the ship her brother and father were on, then take them home with her. That was the plan. That was the goal. This wasn’t at all what was supposed to happen.

“I don’t believe it,” Shiro said suddenly. “There has to be more to the story. I would _not_ have hurt him.” He pursed his lips slightly before turning and heading towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Pidge demanded harshly.

“There’s still one more part of Sendak’s ship we didn’t look at yet, with the command deck on it. If they have any kind of logs on prisoners, that’s where it’d be.”

Pidge narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m coming with you.” Like _hell_ she was letting Shiro go at the potential information alone. For all she knew, he’d probably delete it if it looked bad for him.

The only person that she could count on here was herself.

…

Allura tried to hide her grimace as they walked by the ground that was scorched from the reckless attacks she had thrown at the Paladins the day before. It hadn’t occurred to her in the _slightest_ that she could actually hurt someone else, and it made shame and guilt well up within her. Her father would be _so_ disappointed in her.

Alteans were a _peaceful_ people. It was something that had been drilled into her head via her lessons since she was a young child. They were leaders in diplomacy and innovation, traveling the known universe and discovering other parts unknown. They interacted with civilizations but never tried to rule them. They were better than mindless violence.

What did that say about her? They _needed_ to fight Zarkon, that wasn’t in question, but that wasn’t the Altean way, was it?

Something bitter twisted in Allura’s stomach, reminding her that the ‘Altean way’ these days, was whatever she and Coran did.

Coran was happily chatting to Hunk and Lance behind her, the three of them thankfully far too distracted to notice the way she looked at the destruction she caused. A quick look to her other side resulted in her meeting Keith’s gaze briefly.

Allura quickly looked in front of her again. Outside of Pidge, Keith was the one who was clearly the most critical, the most skeptical of her. If her suspicions about him were right, she guessed his questioning made sense, but that didn’t mean that she had to _like_ it. She didn’t want _him_ to see the guilt she felt. She didn’t want anyone to see her questioning her own decisions already.

So she steeled herself and focused on the task at hand. It wasn’t hard to do, since at that moment, they finally got a look at the Arusian’s village. It was, to put it in a word, quaint. The buildings were small, and much more primitive than Allura was used to, but the little huts fit the people who lived in them.

“I humbly ask for you and your servants to wait here, Goddess,” Klaizap requested with a deep bow before scurrying off quickly, leaving them standing at the edge of the village awkwardly.

“I wonder where the whole Goddess thing came from?” Keith wondered out loud, which was a very good point.

“I don’t,” Lance replied before Allura could get a word in. He smirked at her and wiggled his eyebrows. “Allura _is_ a Goddess, and I’d definitely worship you, Princess.”

She didn’t even hide her annoyed groan, casting him a dark look. One would _think_ that after her negative reception to his other advances, that Lance would have stopped by this point, but it seemed to be getting _worse_. She really wished that he would stop.

“Perhaps the Arusians snuck into the castle and saw Allura sleeping?” Coran suggested. “Without a lion, the castle wouldn’t have activated, but since we were here for 5,000 years, it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what happened.”

“Yeah, I thought about that,” Keith said, though he still sounded skeptical. “But why aren’t they calling you a God then?”

Coran opened his mouth but then stopped, looking just as perplexed.

That was when they noticed the procession of Arusians coming towards them, Klaizap walking a few paces back from an Aursian that was wearing a golden tiara around the horn (or was it a shell, Allura couldn’t tell) on his head. It didn’t take an extreme amount of intelligence to realize that this was likely their leader.

They stopped a few feet away, the King inching closer to them and staring with wide eyes. “What Klaizap says is true! The Goddess has awoken from her slumber!” He bowed before her. “Oh great Goddess, I, King of the Arusians, formally beg your forgiveness. Please have mercy on us and accept our traditional Dance of Apology as atonement for our wrongdoings."

Allura was genuinely startled as the King clapped his hands together, and a nervous-looking Arusian came in front of the rest as the King said, "Commence Dance of Apology! Hoorah!"

The poor little Arusian looked so nervous as she danced before them, though she was quite good. Allura imagined that her nerves had to do with performing in front of someone that they perceived to be a Goddess. “Please, there is no need for this.” The least she could do was try to help the poor thing out.

“Moontow, halt!” the King burst out, and the Arusian, Moontow apparently, stopped mid movement, precariously balancing on one foot. "The Goddess has refused the apology! Start the sacrificial fire!”

“What?” Hunk asked, his voice low and confused. A _massive_ fire erupted not far from them so quickly that Allura was certain for a brief moment that the Red Lion had fired on them. “What?” Hunk repeated, a bit louder.

“What the _cheese_?” Lance exclaimed.

The Arusian King stared at them. “We must throw ourselves into the flames as the scriptures say."

“Oh dear,” Coran mumbled, but didn’t move.

Sudden movement out of the corner of her eye prompted Allura to look over, only to find that Keith backed away a little bit, his eyes wide as he stared at the flames. He genuinely looked bothered by it, grimacing as the Arusians gathered closer to it, because they were _actually going to throw themselves in_.

“No! Stop!” Allura shouted at them, alarm rushing through her as she turned to them, holding a hand out. “No sacrifices!” Her heart was racing a mile a minute. Her eyes looked to one of the little aliens in the background, already tied up and held in the air, ready to plunge into the flames. Had they _planned_ on this happening?

The Altean way was generally to observe cultures and not interrupt their practices, but given that this was happening due to _her_ , she felt like she could stop this nonsense this time.

“We may proceed with the dance?” the King asked.

“Yes,” Allura answered weakly before clearing her throat. “Yes, I’d like that very much. And please put out that fire.”

Moontow started dancing again, and the fire was put out as quickly as it started.

“Hey, hey,” Hunk whispered, though none of the Arusians noticed. “What was _that_?”

Allura bit her lip and shrugged. “Should I tell them that I’m not whatever Goddess they think I am?”

“Bad idea,” Keith answered, much to her surprise. It must have shown on her face, because he added, “You saw what almost happened. If you tell them that, they could get hostile towards us or themselves.”

“Don’t be so morbid,” Lance scolded him, though his eyes were darting from creature to creature as if studying them.

“Actually, I’m with Keith on this one,” Hunk said with a nod. “They may be cute, but they just tried to throw themselves into a sacrificial fire. Historically speaking, that had to come from somewhere. They seem nice enough, just…leave ‘em as is.”

Coran stayed silent, eyes watching the apology dance, though from the way his ears twitched, he was clearly listening to the conversation going on beside him. Again, the Altean thing to do was just observe and not interrupt. The Paladins were probably right, it was best to let them believe what they wanted for now and hope that it wouldn’t come back to bite them later.

The dance ended, and all of the Arusians bowed to Allura.

Though royalty, never before had Allura been confronted with so many people bowing down to her so low that their faces were pressed to the ground. Nervousness bubbled up within her, because she wasn’t sure what to say or do. What would her father do in this situation?

“Oh, my! Please rise.” That seemed like a good way to start. She waited until they were all standing again, and tried to piece together exactly what it is that she should be saying to these people. They’d been their host on this planet for 5,000 decaphobes, and she needed to start making allies and demonstrate how they were supposed to do things, if only for the Paladins’ benefits. “Thank you for that! I too wish to apologize to you. Yesterday you were accidentally put in danger, and it was not my intention.” She paused. “I am Allura, and these are three of the Paladins of Voltron, as well as my advisor, Coran. We are originally from different worlds, and have…very, very, _very_ different traditions, but that doesn’t matter. We wish to live in peace as friends.”

The King looked almost perplexed. “But the mighty robotic angel! Has it not come to destroy us because of our immoral ways?" Was he referring to _Voltron_?

“Immoral ways?” Hunk asked, brows shooting up with surprise.

The King gave him a dead-eyed look. “The Goddess understands the sins that stain our souls.”

“And you say _I’m_ paranoid,” Keith muttered somewhere behind her, earning a small sound from Lance.

“Of course not,” Allura answered with a quick shake of her head. She plastered a wide smile on her face. “That is Voltron. That mighty robot is here to _protect_ you.” She straightened her shoulders. “Let it be known that Voltron, and his Paladins, will protect every innocent being throughout the universe!”

The Arusians started cheering loudly, though Allura doubted that they actually _knew_ what they were cheering for. They weren’t throwing themselves into a fire though, so that was a good thing. It was a (big) step in the right direction.

Instead, the little aliens _rushed_ them. For a split second, she thought that maybe they should have listened to Keith, since the Arusians may be small, but there were a lot of them. It wasn’t an attack though, they were _hugging_ them.

Coran, Hunk, and Lance were all laughing and talking excitedly as they were squeezed and hugged. Keith, on the other hand, tried to back up a bit from the crowd. However, one Arusian jumped up and hugged him around the middle.

“I don’t…usually hug strangers,” he muttered, “but, uh…man, you are cuddly.”

“Thank you,” the Arusian said in the single deepest voice that Allura had _ever_ heard.

Keith’s eyes bugged out, and Allura couldn’t stop herself from laughing at him so hard that she had to cover her face for a moment to gain her composure. When she looked back up, she met his gaze, a small smile on his face as he clearly found humour in the situation too.

They both were lost to a series of snickers as they were all hugged by wave after wave of Arusians.

…

Galra ships, Pidge quickly realized, were probably mass produced with very simple layouts, because this piece of it looked a lot like the other piece that they explored earlier that day. In almost no time at all, she and Shiro arrived on what was once the bridge of the ship.

It wasn’t hard to figure out where the master control board likely was. There was a platform that was similar in a sense to Allura’s, raised above the other stations below. She frowned as she looked it over. “Hmm…this is what we need…but no power.”

“Is that all you need?” Shiro asked her from where he was standing on guard.

Pidge didn’t look at it. She found it hard to do so knowing that he _attacked_ her brother for some reason. “Yeah, but it would have to be compatible with modern Galra tech.” She’d experimented with Rover a little bit, and while she could alter his coding, his power source was slightly different from what the Altean tech used.

Shiro hummed thoughtfully as he came over. Pidge watched as his prosthetic hand lit up, and he pressed it against the console. After a moment, the computer powered up.

“Woah,” Pidge breathed out, practically launching herself at the console. “I can’t _believe_ you got that to work!” She’d have to look at the programming in Shiro’s arm to figure out how it worked, since it seemed to be able to generate its own power source. Or perhaps it was generating it from Shiro himself, which sounded awfully parasitic, but that was something to look into later. She had more important things to think about right now.

She used the external drive that she created with Rover, placing it into the computer and starting the downloads. "My dad's and Matt's whereabouts must be logged in here somewhere. Once I download this information, I'll find some way to decode it back at the Castle.”

Shiro frowned slightly. “Pidge. I want to believe that too, but keep in mind that the Galra Empire covers most of their known universe, and I doubt they keep every shred of information in a single spot.”

Her fingers twitched a bit as she scowled. “It sounds like you don’t _want_ me to find anything here. Or are you scared of what I’ll find?”

He eyed her for a moment, as if weighing his options on how to approach the topic. “I know what Xi said, but there _has_ to be more to that story. I know there is.”

Pidge hoped so too. Matt had always admired him, got along with him really well, so she really hoped that Shiro didn’t attack him for no reason. “Huh?” She glanced up as the ship started rumbling around them.

“What?” Shiro held up his free hand, the cuff projecting a feed from _somewhere_ that showed _something_ big streaking down from the atmosphere, the violet lights making it obvious that whatever it was, it was Galra-made. “It’s on a trajectory directly above us, we gotta go!”

Shiro started to pull back, but Pidge _slammed_ her hand down on top of his, which definitely startled him. “Shiro, don’t move. I’m only fifteen percent done. I’m not going _anywhere_.”

He looked at the feed still projecting in front of them, before saying, “I’m sorry.” The next thing Pidge knew, he shrugged off her arm, and _hoisted_ her off of the ground. She just barely managed to flail out and grab the chip, screaming in protest as he used his jetpack to get away quickly.

This was her chance to find her family, and Shiro had taken it away from her.

…

The little Arusians were, if anything, an incredibly excitable people. For whatever reason, they were still celebrating with dances and excitement.

Well, Keith supposed that they were probably in awe over the fact that their perceived Goddess was walking amongst them, and was happy with them. That probably was as good a reason as any to celebrate.

There were really only so many hugs that Keith could take. He actually didn’t mind being in crowds if he could stick close to a couple people he knew to have someone to talk with, and to help alleviate the pressure of figuring out what to say to others, but constantly being hugged? That was definitely a little too much for him.

Even through his armour, he felt like his skin was prickling. People just didn’t touch him often, let alone hug him.

“They’re quite lively, aren’t they?”

Keith glanced over as Allura approached him, a lighthearted smile on her face. She stopped close to him so that their arms brushed, and had to remind himself not to flinch away. He didn’t want to insult her or something, especially since she seemed to be in a cheerful mood.

“Just a little bit,” he answered, looking back at the activity in front of him. He watched one of them climb onto Hunk’s back, laughing and cheering. His brow furrowed. “You need to be more careful though. Just because something looks safe, doesn’t mean it is.” It was a bit alarming to think about how quickly the Arusians could have taken them all out.

Allura _looked_ like she was about to protest, but then paused. Her smile dropped to a pensive frown. “I suppose so.” That came as a bit of a surprise, because she was as stubborn as he was, and admitting something like that wasn’t easy. She shifted closer to him still, lowering her voice to almost a whisper. “I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you about something.”

Keith blinked, a bit taken back, but then his mind instantly went to the worst case scenario. She was going to scold him for his attitude or something, and then he would fight back, and then it would all be a mess. It was how things went with him. Might as well get it over with. “Yeah?”

She bit her lip, and looked genuinely nervous, which was new. “This may sound odd, but what do you know about your family?”

Whatever he expected, it wasn’t that. Keith’s stomach twisted, fingers twitching for the knife that he needed to work into his uniform (Coran said something about being able to attach the sheath to his utility belt, but had yet to show him how to do that). Not for defense, but for comfort. He always did that when he could see flames in the corner of his vision, or when he caught a whiff of smoke.

He crossed his arms in front of him. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.” It didn’t affect him as a Paladin, so it really wasn’t.

She was fiddling with the strands of shining white hair that fell over her shoulders. “I didn’t mean…I…not anything super specific, but if you knew anything of your heritage?”

“Does it matter?” Keith was genuinely confused. The only thing he knew about his heritage was that his father was adopted from Japan by the Hawkins family, lived in Texas, then moved to Nevada to the Hawkins’ land where the shack now stood (and Keith legally owned). He had no idea where his mother was from or anything else.

“A little bit,” Allura said slowly, as if carefully choosing her words. “Well, not to being a Paladin or the like. It’s just…there’s something I noticed about you. You recall I mentioned being able to see quintessence?”

He nodded slowly. “Yeah, like a much stronger version of how I can sense it, right?” That was one of those things that he wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.

“Yes, that is what I want to talk about.” Her eyes widened eagerly now that they broached the _actual_ topic that she wanted to talk about. “See, I have a theory. It really does seem like a good theory at this point. One of the first things I noticed is that your quintessence is different from the others.”

“How?”

Allura motioned towards Lance and Hunk, then brought her hands up into the air and mimed a box. “Hunk, Lance, Shiro, and Pidge, all have fairly uniform quintessence. It’s not particularly strong, but not the weakest I’ve seen. It’s there, but inactive.” She moved her hands in wave patterns. “Yours, however, shifts and changes, reaching out to things. It’s _similar_ to what Altean quintessence looks like, but not exact, and much, _much_ weaker.” She tilted her head as she observed him. “That reaching out is why you can feel the lions, and that certainly does not seem to be a natural trait that humans possess.”

His eyebrows shot up at her words. “What’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

She opened her mouth to answer him, when her earrings lit up, and Shiro’s voice came from both of them, as well as the comms unit on Keith’s cuff.

"Team, come in! We need backup!"

The panic in his voice instantly put Keith on guard.

“Shiro?” Allura asked, looking around as if searching for him.

“What’s going on?” Keith asked him, keeping his voice steady, no matter how worried he felt.

“Incoming!” That was the only thing Shiro said, since it sounded like he was running or something, and Keith could hear Pidge protesting in the background for whatever reason. That was all he needed to say though. The ground started rumbling, prompting both him and Allura to look up at the sky.

“Oh no,” Keith muttered, his eyes going wide. “We gotta get to our lions!”

Allura nodded and grabbed his arm, squeezing it. “I’ll help everyone here! You all go!” She rushed forward, into the middle of the panicking Arusians. “Everyone get inside and stay down!”

“I’m on it!” Hunk said, rushing by her and Keith, heading to hide behind one of the buildings. Keith groaned and grabbed his arm, yanking him towards the castle, not letting on how difficult it was because _god_ Hunk was heavy. “Aw, come on, Keith!”

“Not you,” he scolded as they caught up to Lance, who was waiting for them with a serious expression. There was a bit of irony about the fact that Keith felt like he could count on the person that he argued with the most, but he’d take it for now. Shiro was in danger, they all were, and they needed to get to their lions now.

…

“No!” Pidge screamed as she thrashed in Shiro’s arms, but he refused to let go of her as he ran as quickly as he could, using his jetpack to go even faster. “Shiro! Let me go! My father!”

He felt for her, he really, truly did, but Shiro was _not_ going to let her go, and was not about to stop. “You can’t find him if you’re dead!” Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh, but Pidge was being irrational right now, so he had to do _something_ to make her stop.

It seemed to work, since she went almost limp in his arms as he jetted them across the landscape, but a quick glance over his shoulder made Shiro realize that he wasn’t going to get away in time.

He braced himself, hoping against all hope that the Altean armour they wore would prove to be as strong as Coran claimed that it was.

Shadows suddenly loomed over them, and what should have been a painfully loud explosion sounded almost muffled. Shiro looked up, coming to a stop when he realized that there was a particle barrier created from overlapping purple and green hexagons. The flames from the explosion pulsed against the barrier, slowly dying down. “What the?”

“Green?” Pidge muttered, looking over Shiro’s shoulder. He looked back, and nearly recoiled when he saw the Green and Black Lions looming over them, the source of the shadows.

The two lions were supposed to be in the castle with the others, so how did they get here without them there to pilot them? His eyes widened as he realized exactly what happened. “They saved us.”

“I didn’t know they could do that,” Pidge said as she squirmed out of his arms. Shiro let go easily, sure that she wasn’t going to try going back to where the ship didn’t exist anymore. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at the two lions.

There was a muffled bang behind them, quieter than the explosion, but it was still enough for the two to look back. Pidge jerked back when she saw a massive, bulky robot made from purple and silver metals, the glowing purple details making it obvious where it had come from.

“Get to your lion!” Shiro shouted to her. They rushed to their individual lions, who bowed down and opened their mouths to let them climb inside, though he made sure that Pidge was in Green before he entered Black.

Shiro barely got the chance to sit in his seat before they had to move, the particle barriers falling down as the lions prepared to launch themselves into the air.

A powerful, glowing sphere was launched towards them, and Green was the first to jump, using a cannon from her mouth to try and stop it, but it kept going, slamming into the smaller lion and sending her flying backwards, tearing the ground she skidded along.

The robot launched itself at the fallen lion, and Shiro urged back forward to stop it, only to get slammed backwards himself. He had absolutely _no_ idea how he managed to stay in his seat without any belts, but was glad for it.

The robot loomed over him, and a pulsing headache overtook Shiro as he stared at it. Why was this thing _so_ familiar? He was sure he had never seen anything like this before, but at the same time, he felt like he knew this robot.

Blasts of energy suddenly slammed into the machine, and it recoiled away from Black and Green.

"Lay down some covering fire so they can get out of there!" Keith ordered over the comms, and Shiro realized exactly what was going on. The other three lions had come to help them!

“I’m on it!” Lance called out, more lasers urging the robot farther away, giving Shiro the chance to maneuver Black out of the way, Pidge doing the same in Green.

“Check it out!” Hunk cried out. “Battle-Lion head-butt!" Yellow charged into the robot, knocking it down from the impact.

“You guys okay?” Keith asked. “Shiro? Pidge?”

“Still alive for now,” he deadpanned as Black, and Green flew up in the air to join Red and Blue, Yellow following behind them. Shiro couldn’t help but smile when he heard Keith’s light, annoyed groan, knowing full-well that his brother didn’t at all appreciate his morbid humour in any way, shape, or form.

“This is Galra, right?” Hunk asked them as they stared at the robot below them.

“Definitely,” Shiro agreed with a nod of his head. “I don’t remember much, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Why _would_ the Galra need a giant robot that looked like it was made for hand-to-hand (or similar) combat? They had massive warships that could take over a world, and plenty of smaller fighters as well.

A sinking feeling rushed through him. This thing? This was likely made for the purposes of fighting Voltron, and that couldn’t sit well with them since Zarkon seemed to know how powerful Voltron was if he wanted it so badly.

"So, what's the plan? Shoot at it with everything we've got? Take out its weapon? Call it names?" Lance asked, breaking Shiro out of his thoughts with the last suggestion. Everything else was actually a pretty good idea, but he knew it wasn’t going to be enough.

"If we want to take this monster down, there's only one way to do it,” Shiro said as the lions flew together in formation. “Form Voltron!"

He was fairly certain that, no matter how many times they actually formed Voltron, he would _never_ be used to the feeling of being _more_ than himself.

Like before, Shiro’s right side seemed to be good, but there was a bit of strain from the left. It wasn’t as bad as during practice, since Pidge was focused on the enemy at hand, but he knew that a part of her mind was still lingering on her family and wanted to be looking for them. He took a deep breath. “Remember, we are _one_ unit, fighting with _one_ goal.”

Yellow dug into the ground to give them traction, and then they launched themselves towards the robot, flipping over the ball of energy that flew at them.

The robot swung its arm up to block them as Red careened down towards it. Pidge took that opportunity to slam Green upwards, punching it in its metallic chin.

There were general whoops of excitement from the Paladins, the feeling careening from one to another as the creature slammed back into the mountains.

Together, Hunk and Lance launched Voltron up into the air. Keith and Pidge brought the arms up, and then directed them back down as they slammed back down onto the robot below them. Both of them grunted as their lions collided with the creature’s sturdy arm that was used to block them.

It was Pidge’s sudden spike of fear that shot through everyone. Her confusion of _how_ this thing was able to hold off not one, but two lions at the same time echoed through their bond.

Shiro was distracted enough by the feeling that he didn’t notice the way the robots other hand whirred to life again, nor did he see the purple light that was coming from behind them.

The robot very suddenly moved out of the way, causing them to stumble. At the same time, the orb of energy slammed them down into the ground. It hit once, twice, three times, and while Voltron stayed in-tact, a dull pain still struck Shiro’s back in the same place that they were being hit.

It wasn’t a particularly bad pain, just a bit uncomfortable, but it did raise some alarming questions that they didn’t have time to think about right now. They managed to slip out from the attack, putting a bit of distance between them and the orb.

“I thought Voltron was the most powerful weapon in the universe!” Keith exclaimed over the comms, feeling more than a bit indignant over the fact that nothing they did seemed to phase this creature.

“Yeah,” Hunk agreed. “So how is this monster kicking our butts?” He couldn’t help but notice just how _fluidly_ the creature moved. It _looked_ like a robot, but from what he could tell, it moved more like a giving creature. Not even Voltron was that agile. What the heck was going on?

“Look out!” Pidge yelled, trying to get them to move, but it was too late. They were thrown back into the mountains, crushing them in the process.

“What is _that_?” Shiro demanded, staring at what looked like huts in the distance, his obvious confusion flaring across their bond.

“That’s the Aruasian village,” Hunk explained to him quickly. “Allura and Coran are supposed to be helping them out!”

There was an entire village that _close_ to where they’d been training, and they never noticed? God, some defenders they were. Shiro’s hands tightened on the controls. “We have to protect those people!”

Panic lurched through all of them as they were hit by the orb again, thrown clear over the mountains. It was only by a _sheer_ stroke of luck and quick thinking that they managed to get the jets going so that they didn’t slam into the ground and ruin everything. They wouldn’t have landed on the village, but the shockwaves from the impact surly would have ruined it.

They flew up into the air, bypassing the creature, who was very quick to give chase.

“This is ridiculous!” Pidge cried out.

“I got it!” Lance insisted, focusing on keeping Voltron steady along with Hunk. “I’m going to power-kick that orb thing!” Maybe if they kicked it _back_ at the robot, it would end up blowing it up or something.

“No!” Keith protested. “The last time you did a kick, we fell!"

Lance made a face at that. “Stop living in the past!” They had to try _something_ , didn’t they? He didn’t hear anyone _else_ coming up with any ideas.

He felt a reluctant consensus coming from everyone else, and took that as his cue to turn them around and face the approaching robot. Voltron leapt high into the air, and Lance yelled as Blue swung out to kick the orb back to where it came from.

Lance’s stomach jumped to his throat as he realized a split-second too late that he misjudged the size of the orb, so it ended up sliding by him, slamming directly into Black instead. They wheeled end-over-end before once again eating dust.

“Not one word,” he groaned, feeling dull aches and pains everywhere, as well as the ire coming from a few of the others. 

Pidge groaned as she looked up, nearly throwing up when she realized that it was charging them _again_. She jumped as Shiro yelled, “Pidge, fire lasers, now!”

“Got it!” she replied quickly and scrambled to hit the right buttons, but her hands were shaking, and all she wanted to do was hide from this apparently indestructible _thing_ that they were fighting.

Maybe her shaking fingers pressed the wrong button, though maybe it was Green responding to her fear, but instead of firing her cannon, she ended up bringing out their shield. “Oops!”

A video feed opened up, Shiro’s panicked face appearing as he yelled, “No! Lasers! Lasers!”

“I’m trying!” Pidge yelled, but she wasn’t quick enough. The creature slammed into them from one direction, and then the energy orb slammed into them from the other.

They spun around, Voltron just _barely_ managing to stay on its two legs.

“Every time we focus on that orb, we're blindsided by the monster, and every time we focus on the monster, the orb hits us!" Hunk exclaimed loudly, his terror spiking through to all of the others.

“Then what do we do?” Lance cried out, trying to keep a brave face. He didn’t know if it was his own fear that he was feeling, or someone else’s, or if it even mattered at this point.

The onslaught continued as they tried, unsuccessfully, to fight back. Up this close to it, Shiro almost felt like the yellow eye it had looked almost _real_ , not like a robotic one. He heard a familiar clicking and whirring sound, and suddenly, he found himself in a blurry arena instead, a cruel face looking back at him.

Then all the pieces clicked into place. Shiro knew _exactly_ why he felt like he knew this creature. “Myzax,” he whispered. Faintly, he could hear Keith saying that they had to get up. They had to move. He didn’t notice that though. Now that the image was in his head, he would _never_ forget this gladiator. This was his first fight in the arena. The start on his road to becoming the Champion.

The first alien he _killed_.

“Shiro!” He was snapped back into reality by Keith’s voice, able to feel his concern as clear as day.

“I know how to beat him!” Shiro burst out, not wanting to deal with the fact that he was having flashbacks right now. “He's like a Gladiator I fought in the arena. I don’t know how he became this _thing_ , but he still fights the same!”

There was a bit of reluctance, but then he felt the agreement, the trust.

Time seemed to slow down as the creature—as Myzax—brought his fist down towards them. At the last second, Shiro managed to maneuver Voltron out of the way, putting a bit of distance between them and their attacker. "Listen, there's a loud sound when the orb returns to the base of the weapon, and every third time, that orb needs to charge up. That's this monster's weakest point. That's when we strike."

“And in the meantime?” Hunk asked, his panic tangible.

“Defense!”

It was a simple enough strategy. Pidge purposefully brought out the shield this time, grunting as the first of the orbs slammed into it.

“That’s one! Two more to go!” Shiro yelled to encourage them. They could do this.

The shield took another hit, and they stumbled backwards slightly, but Lance and Hunk kept them up.

“We can’t take much more!” Hunk exclaimed loudly, which wasn’t necessarily true. The lions themselves could take as much as they had to, but the small aches and pains that they seemed to be sharing with them were getting to be a bit…much.

“We can do this!” Shiro insisted. The third or slammed into the shield, causing it to fly up into the air and land on the sand behind them. He waited for the sound, straining his ears to hear it the same way he had in the arena a year ago. When he heard it, his eyes snapped open and he yelled, “Now!”

Red shot up almost immediately and fired her laser cannon.

Lance whooped as they got in a direct hit, and the monster (that was apparently someone Shiro fought before but that was a whole _other_ situation to think about) went down hard, throwing dust and rubble up into the air.

His celebration was short lived as the dust started to clear, and it was _still_ standing there.

“It didn’t work!” Pidge yelled.

Lance tried to ask what they should do next, but they were hit by the orb again and he had to focus to try and keep them upright. He could _feel_ Hunk panicking, and for once, didn’t know what to say to him. Instead, he took a deep breath and tried to focus on being calm, hoping against all hope that Hunk would feel it.

“When I attacked him before, I had a sword!” Shiro called out, as if _that_ helped them at all.

His words were overlapping with Hunk’s screams of, “Orb! Orb!” This time, when they were hit, yellow slipped out from under them and they ended up kneeling on the ground.

Keith gripped the controls of his lion tightly, mind racing over ideas. A sword. That’s what Shiro used. He was _good_ with swords too. Hell, his bayard turned into a rapier-like sword. Was he panicking? Is _that_ what this was?

_It’s okay, Cub Paladin._

He looked up at Red’s soothing voice, the interior around him glowing a little more as a whirring sound joined his quick breaths (when had those started) in the otherwise silent cockpit. A rectangular box rose out of the dashboard with what almost looked like a keyhole in the middle of it.

_Your bayard_.

“I think my lion’s telling me what to do,” he said before he even realized that he was talking.

“Whatever it is, hurry up and do it!” Lance cried out to him, trying to keep it together as best as he could. “He's about to fire his third shot!"

Keith looked up, a bit of genuine terror rushing through him as he scrambled to get his bayard. He tried to put it inside of the console, but jerked to the side when they were hit again. A rush of pain jolted through his shoulder thanks to how his arm was outstretched. That, he could deal with. What he found incredibly odd was the worry he felt instantly pulse from the others over their shared bond.

Of course, if they could get impressions of their emotions and thoughts, the pain must go across those bonds too. Keith could accept that, but why were they worried about _him_? No, they wouldn’t be. Must just be because they got hit again and were laying on the ground nearly helpless.

He focused again, and felt the tremors of the monster coming towards them again. The fear he felt coming from everyone else was enough to get him moving again. Keith slammed the bayard into the slot and twisted it around.

Almost immediately, a sword appeared in Voltron’s right hand. The monster jumped up high, streaking down towards them in what it probably thought would be a killing blow. It definitely wasn’t expecting the sword.

Together, they all urged Voltron off of the ground, striking clean through the creature, the momentum of the movement causing them to slide across the ground until they came to a stop.

The monster fell to the ground in pieces.

Excitement arched across their bond as cheers broke out over the comms. Keith just stared forward, almost stunned by their victory.

“How did you _do_ that?” Hunk asked, all of the fear gone from his voice.

“I…Red told me to put my bayard in this compartment. Like we have more hidden weapons if we listen to them,” Keith explained. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he could feel the aches and pains from their connection to Voltron. It was _really_ weird.

“Hey guys,” Pidge spoke up, frowning a little bit as she looked at the screens around him. “Green wants us to check that thing we just fought out.”

“Black agrees,” Shiro said, his image appearing in front of her again. “Scan it.”

She nodded her head and went to work, scanning it from a distance. None of them wanted to get close in case something else happened, like there was a failsafe in it that would blow up or something. 

The results came back quickly, and she couldn’t _believe_ what she was seeing. “What am I looking at? Hunk! I need a second scan. You can do that too, right?”

“Yellow says yes,” Hunk agreed, going through the information that appeared on his screen. “Okay, okay, I’m looking at it and…” his eyebrows shot up “…that _can’t_ be right.”

“What’s up?” Shiro asked them both.

“It’s reading as both a machine and biological matter,” Hunk explained, more than a bit confused.

“That’s what I got too,” Pidge confirmed, just as lost as he was.

Curious, Shiro urged them forward to actually take a look at it. When they got close, his own horror mingled with that of the other Paladins as they actually got a _look_ at what they were fighting. When he said it was Myzax, Shiro honestly thought that it was a machine based on him, maybe made to look a little more realistic, but he wasn’t expecting what they saw.

Metals, oils, blood, and organs all mingled together in a gruesome pile on the ground. Shiro liked to think that he had a strong stomach, but he really had to hold it together to _not_ gag. It was even harder to do when he heard Hunk lose it (he couldn’t blame him this time).

What the _hell_ were they fighting? 

…

Haggar watched as the screen before her flickered before fading away as her robeast was defeated. Annoyance and ire welled up within her. What should have been a success clearly wasn’t strong enough to defeat Voltron, and that wouldn’t do at all.

“I’ll make another,” Haggar said, her mind already going over the data that they collected. These Paladins weren’t strong like the ones from the past. They were uncoordinated and distant. Perhaps that could be used to break their bonds with the lions (though that in and of itself would not be an easy task). “More powerful than this.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Zarkon’s voice rumbled from where he had been watching the entire time. “Sendak still lives, and is on Arus. I've given him instructions for how to proceed."

A brief flash of anger twisted through Haggar. How dare he not tell her this? It vanished quickly, because what right did she have to question her Emperor? “Can he be trusted?”

Haggar already knew the answer, of course. She just needed a moment to sort out her thoughts without him glaring down at her.

"I trained him and he has his mission. He fights in the name of Galra. Only victory or death will stop him,” Zarkon said sternly.

Haggar bowed her head to him in agreement. Yes, only success or death would stop Sendak, but she already knew what fate would befall him. She could feel it within her. She would use the data that she gathered and continue her experiment.

When Sendak failed, she would be ready.

…

Lance felt rattled. No, that wasn’t quite right, the feeling was stronger than that, but it was all he could come up with for now. His mind kept flashing back to whatever it was that they fought. His stomach twisted at the image that would never be purged from his mind of flesh and metal twisted together.

He shook his head slightly, focusing on the here and now. It was a much better place. The prisoners that they helped free were all feeling much better, good enough to be able to leave. They deserved to go back and see their families again.

They all gathered around the Altean pod that Coran set up for them. It would take a while for the aliens to learn to fly one of them, but with the autopilot function, they’d be fine. It was a little too dangerous for them to stay in the castle with them.

“There are others that still fight against the Galra,” a tall alien with many arms told them. “Rebels that refuse to let the Galra rule. I was one of them before I was captured. I plan on returning to them to tell them of what transpired here.”

“Voltron was said to be an ancient myth,” another added. “Now we know that it is real.”

“Thank you or everything,” Xi added to them, the last of the former prisoners to enter the pod. “We never dreamed we'd see our families again. But you gave us hope. You gave the universe hope."

Hunk sniffed a bit behind him, his eyes watering. “You guys be careful out there!”

“Yeah, and if you get into trouble, remember that we’re here to fight back!” Lance added encouragingly.

As much as he missed his family, as much as he wanted to see them again, helping these prisoners, watching them find hope again, that was worth it to keep helping, wasn’t it? Lance always wanted to be a part of something big and important, and this certainly fit that, didn’t it?

“As long as you don’t abandon us again,” one of the quiet, crankier prisoners muttered. Which, ouch, that kind of hurt? It wasn’t like _they_ abandoned everyone. They didn’t make that choice.

There was a sharp intake of breath behind him, and Lance cast a glance over his shoulder. Allura still had a smile on his face, but her fingers were twisted into fists.

Oh. Right. _They_ didn’t choose to hide the lions and basically abandon everyone, but her father _had_.

Lance opened his mouth to say something to her, but she shot him a harsh glare, and he instantly shut up, turning around to face the pod again. Along with Hunk, he waved to the former prisoners as they left, finally free.

When he turned back to see if Allura was okay, she was gone. 

…

Pidge sat on the ground, staring up at the sky as the mice scurried around her in an attempt to entertain her. Normally, she wasn’t one for being outdoors, but there was something nice about it too. It gave her space to think, and Arus was so similar to Earth, that it let her think that she was still home, that the emails she was still writing to her mother every day, but was keeping in a word document, could reach her if she wanted them to.

“Pidge, there you are.”

She looked up at Shiro as he approached. Being a part of Voltron let her understand the boys around her in a way she’d never been able to do with anyone else before, and she knew with every fiber of her being that Shiro was a good guy. That was why it didn't make sense at all that he’d done what the aliens were accusing him of.

“Why would you hurt my brother?” Pidge asked him with a frown. “You were friends.”

Shiro sat beside her, holding out his hand to let the biggest of the mice climb up. He smiled warmly at the little creature, carefully stroking its fur. How could someone that was so gentle with such a fragile thing hurt someone like her brother?

“I did it to save him,” Shiro explained softly.

“Huh?” Her eyes went wide.

“Fighting that…thing made me remember it,” he admitted. “I remember hearing them say that they were taking your father to a work camp, like Xi said. Matt was young enough to put into the arena though, with me. He was supposed to go before me.” Shiro looked down, his eyes clouding like he was lost in a memory.

Pidge waited for a moment before saying, “Shiro?”

He started out of his thoughts, blinking wildly before settling. “Sorry. The arena, those battles are deathmatches. Matt was so scared, and kept talking about how he wouldn’t make it, how he’d never see you again.”

Pidge could picture it, and it made a sob bubble up in her throat, but she held it down.

“The sentry came for him—gave him a sword—but I took it. I acted like I wanted to fight, like I wanted the glory, so they wouldn’t be suspicious. And I—and I hurt him so that they would put him in the work camp with your father, instead of the arena.”

She processed that for a moment. Shiro _did_ attack Matt, but it wasn’t to hurt him. It was to _save_ him from the arena. Shiro threw himself head-first into hell to _save_ him.

The sob finally escaped, and she threw herself at him hugging him tightly. “I’m so sorry I doubted you! Thank you! Thank you so much!” She let her tears fall down onto his vest.

Shiro started slightly, but returned the hug. "I can tell you really miss them. I know they miss you, too. Your brother and father would be proud of you, Katie."

Hearing her given name startled her enough to look up at him. She settled down beside him, not understanding at first. Then she felt a little stupid, because _of course_ Shiro knew who she was. Her dad and Matt would have mentioned her.

Now that she thought about it, she admitted out loud to _everyone_ who her father was. Keith knew who she was too, that was why he distracted everyone from the picture she projected.

It wasn’t really the fact that people knew she was a girl that startled her, Pidge realized. It was hearing her _name_ . As much as she loved the name Pidge, it was that stupid nickname her brother gave her years ago that she used to hate, but she missed _her_ name too.

“Don’t worry, until you’re ready, your secret’s safe with me.”

Pidge smiled broadly at him. Yes, she missed her family a lot, but Shiro, he was a pretty good older brother too.

She shifted a bit, getting comfortable as the mice settled down with them to watch the sunset.

…

“Are you okay?”

Allura looked up, startled by the fact that someone found her. She was sure that she hid away well enough in the observation room, since she hadn’t told any of the Paladins that it was there. It was always one of her favourite places to go.

Her eyes turned to where Keith hovered just at the entrance of the door, clearly unsure of whether he should actually enter or not. Allura got the feeling that, if she asked for space, he would give it to her without question, and she truly appreciated that.

But then she saw the way his eyes were focused on the object in her hands, and she looked down at it. It was a little music box that could project a single image, and held quite a bit of quintessence within it, so it was no surprise that he was zeroed in on it.

She took a deep breath and motioned for him to come and sit beside her. His movements were slow and hesitant, but he eventually came and settled next to her, staring out the windows.

An awkward silence hovered between them, until Keith blurted out, “This is an impressive view.”

Allura chuckled at that and turned her eyes to the window. They were overlooking Arus’ ocean, which was lit up with the fiery colours of the sunset. “I always loved coming here. Even the most desolate landscapes are amazing from up here.” She looked down at the projection from her music box, her parents standing side by side. “This was my mother’s favourite room as well.”

“These are your parents?” Keith asked her, nodding down to it.

She handed him the music box, and he held it carefully, as if it was a precious, fragile object. “Yes. My mother passed when I was _very_ young. She was ill. And my father…” Her father hid Voltron away and let the universe suffer at the hands of Zarkon.

Keith stared at the projection before carefully setting it down. “I never knew my mother. She left when I was a baby. My father died in a fire when I was young. I don’t know _anything_ about my family.” He looked at her. “Allura, what do you _think_ I am?”

She was a bit taken back from the bluntness, but it was probably better than being cryptic. “Your quintessence is like a weaker version of mine. I think that, perhaps, you had an Altean ancestor. Perhaps a grandparent or even later.”

He looked confused by this claim, which she expected, but what she didn’t expect was the reason _why_ he was confused. “Coran said Alteans couldn’t have kids with other species outside of Galra, but that’s because the Galra could adapt.”

She instinctively bristled a bit at the mention of the Galra. “Well of course Alteans _wouldn’t_ attempt to procreate with most species, but, hideous ears aside, humans seem quite similar.” She looked at him wistfully. “Alteans were diplomats, travellers and explorers. It’s actually a rite of passage for Alteans to go to other worlds to observe and document the species there. Many were off-world when the war began, and though they were called home for safety, there _is_ the chance that a few may have chosen to stay where they were. If you _do_ have Altean heritage, even if it’s quite far back…” She trailed off. “See, your quintessence is unique. It’s not as bright or powerful as an Alteans, but it’s _much_ more reactive than the others, as I said.” She motioned to her music box. “You can feel this, can’t you?”

“I can,” he admitted, his voice oddly soft and quiet. His brow then furrowed together. “I’ve been stopping and staring at walls and stuff. At cupboards and closets. Are you _hiding_ stuff there to test that?”

Her face flushed magenta at being called out. It was a bit of a side project she put into motion that morning while the Paladins got their ridiculous amount of sleep they needed. “Well…yes. I needed to know. The mice have kept me informed. That’s how I’m so sure of it.”

“Allura,” Keith said slowly, his expression unreadable. “That’s _fucking_ creepy.”

Her eyebrows quirked up. She didn’t know what that f-word meant, it didn’t translate properly to Altean so she heard the word as-is, but that wasn’t the point. “What? Why?” She didn’t understand. She was just setting out an experiment to watch and observe. Alteans did it all the time with the different species they encountered to see what they’d do.

“You can’t just send your mice to spy on people and test them without their permission. It’s wrong.”

“Why?” She was truly, genuinely confused.

Any hostility that was on his face vanished. “You…really don’t get it? Wow. Um. It’s not what you do to other people.” He made a face, lost in thought, before he snapped his fingers. “Oh! Lance! Do you like it when Lance flirts with you?”

Just the thought of it nearly made her shudder. “Absolutely not! It’s honestly creepy and he doesn’t pick up the signals that I’m not okay…with…it…oh.” She didn’t at all like the fact that he kept flirting with her, and it was entirely out of her control. She supposed that she could understand where Keith was coming from in that context, in a way. They were still different scenarios, but she got what he was _trying_ to get across (even if he was struggling to do so).

“Oh?” he repeated.

“I apologize. I just…I was so excited.” She looked down at her hands. “Because if you _do_ have some Altean heritage, which I’m sure you do, that means that Alteans _did_ survive, even if they’re not around anymore.”

“How long do Alteans live?” Keith wondered, and honestly, Allura was glad that he wasn’t just shrugging off her suggestion. There was really no physical evidence that Keith could have Altean heritage, it was really only his slightly more reactive quintessence that tipped her off. Well, she supposed his violet eyes could count.

“Anywhere from 900 to 1,000 decaphobes,” Allura answered with a small shrug.

Keith actually jolted, staring at her with wide eyes. “ _What_ ? How old are _you_?”

She blinked at his question, not sure why he sounded so surprised. “I’m only 200.” She’d only been considered an adult by Altean standards for the past 20 decaphobes, and she definitely didn’t have things together as much as she felt like she should at this point. Perhaps in another 50 decaphobes, she would feel a bit better about herself in that regard.

“Only 200?” he repeated, absolutely scandalized. “ _Only_?”

“Yes.” She quirked an eyebrow at him. “I’m actually quite young. I can’t be much older than you.”

Keith stared at her blankly. “Allura, I’m 18.”

_What_ ? That _couldn’t_ be right. “You’re an _infant_!”

“I’m _legally_ an adult,” he shot back quickly.

“ _What_? How long do humans live?”

“Usually around 100 years, but it’s common to go longer thanks to medicine.” Keith eyed her. “So yeah, you’re kind of already double the average humans can live.”

Her eyes went wide. Humans were not only _so_ fragile, but such a short-lived species. Her Paladins, even if they defeated Zarkon, would be gone in the blink of an eye. She wouldn’t even be middle-aged by the time they were gone.

Oddly enough, despite how annoyed and frustrated she felt with the Paladins, the sheer concept upset her to the point where she had to take a few deep breaths.

Keith didn’t seem aware of her internal conflict, to which she was eternally grateful for. Instead, he was staring out the window, his brow furrowed. “So an Altean that’s 1,000 is probably around a human that’s 100, so in comparison, I guess you’d be like a 20-year-old. Human development-wise.” He paused. “That means that if I had a great-grandparent, or a generation or two back, they might still be alive, wouldn’t they?”

Allura’s eyes widened at the concept. She hadn’t thought about that. She thought humans had the same life spans as Alteans, so surely any grandparent or great grandparent would be deceased. Keith was right though. Outside influences aside, they _would_ still be alive. “They would! Keith! There may be other Alteans out there, still alive!” She grabbed his hands excitedly and squeezed them.

He stared at her for a moment, as if trying to read her. His expression, which she belatedly realized was a bit upset, softened. “I hope there are, if it helps at all. It really sucks to be alone.”

Her heart squeezed a bit. “They can’t replace my father. Nothing ever will. Knowing that there may be others still alive though? That means that maybe his sacrifice wasn’t for nothing.” She frowned, Xi’s words coming back to her. She tried to force back the tears. “He hid Voltron away, and it was wrong, but he still went to face Zarkon. He still _tried_ . If I can find other Alteans out there, that means it wasn’t for nothing. If we can _stop_ Zarkon, it wasn’t for nothing. It means he didn’t leave _me_ for no reason. He wouldn’t let me help then, but I can help now.” She paused. “Why didn’t he let me help?”

What was she even saying? It felt like they were having ten conversations at once.

“Because that’s what parents do.” Her eyes snapped towards Keith as he spoke with so much certainty, that she didn’t dare doubt him. “They hide their children away from a losing battle, they run back into a building to save them from a fire, all to give them a _chance_ , even if it means they don’t live to see that chance themselves.”

It was then and there that Allura understood. Keith knew _exactly_ how she felt, even if the situations were different. Maybe it was because of that, or maybe it was because she was pretty sure she was sitting with someone who shared a heritage with her, but she let her walls crumble. Tears fell down her cheeks as she leaned her forehead on his shoulder and _sobbed_.

Slowly, Keith brought his hand up, resting it on the back of her head. He didn’t say anything, but that was okay. There really wasn’t anything else that needed to be said right now.

…

The castle was quiet as Coran tapped out a few commands on the computer in the bridge. As far as he knew, Lance and Hunk were down in the kitchen, Shiro and Pidge were outside with the mice, and Keith and Allura were up on the observation deck. They were all entertained for now, and that was good.

He didn’t want them to have to see exactly what he was looking at.

He went over the scans that Voltron took of that monster they fought—a combination of machinery and flesh. It was a living creature in the fact that it had blood, a heart, lungs, a brain, and a few other things, but it was fully infused with wires, plastics, and metals.

Coran had seen cyborgs before, but this wasn’t that. This wasn’t an android or any kind of robot that he had ever come across before.

This was a true abomination, and it was _terrifying_ to know that the _Galra_ were creating something like this.

Pidge wasn’t able to get much information from the computers of Sendak’s ship, but with Shiro mentioning the name Myzax, Coran was able to find information on that specific gladiator. A very quick comparison told him that the biological matter of that monster was indeed a match _._

Shiro admitted to killing Myzax in the arena almost a decaphoeb ago.

Coran felt sick at the thought, but it was clear to him that _something_ brought this Myzax person back to life as much more than what he originally was. Someone used his matter to create this abomination in a likeness of who he used to be.

It wouldn’t be the first time Coran came across something that came back to life wildly changed from what it once was.

It was unsettling, but even more so was the idea of _who_ might have created something like this. It spoke of a very high intelligence, and a deep, unsettling psychopathy. The worse thing was that Coran had a pretty good idea of who was behind this.

After all, if Zarkon was still alive, why wouldn’t his witch be too? If she was still alive, he doubted that this was the last abomination that was going to come their way. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have all the little groups of team bonding! And will I ever write a chapter without klance being disasters? Probably not. You all know what you're getting into.
> 
> So I originally wrote this chapter about a year ago, so you can imagine the 'yikes' my brain did when I got to the part of Shiro's mother dying from an outbreak of a disease. Which is something I also wrote in my What Happens stories. Oops I accidentally predicted things again? I thought about changing Shiro's backstory given the current global climate, but decided against it. It actually is important to him and his mentality. 
> 
> A month later and I can't believe I'm still writing that I hope everyone is being safe, since so many of us are still on lockdown! I hope that this entertained you at least a little while I toe the lie between content you know, and original things too (which, you'll notice, are largely going to be character moments rather than plot-based ones in the beginning). 
> 
> Let me know what you think! Seriously, I'd love to hear from you. From one word comments to giant essays, I love them all!
> 
> Small reminder, I update around the 21st of each month!


	7. To Divide...

“…The monster fell from the sky! It was an epic battle, but Voltron was victorious!" The Arusian King called out, throwing his hands in the air as he retold the battle from the day before between Voltron and that strange Robeast (as Coran started to call him since it was half robot, half beast).

Allura watched as the stack of Arusians that were acting as the Robeast tackled and knocked over the stack pretending to be Voltron.

“No! I said  _ Voltron _ was victorious!” the King cried out. The little creatures quickly corrected themselves, knocking the right ones over, before cheering loudly.

Allura loved parties, and she was good at acting like the prim and proper princess during them, but this time around, she found herself entirely exhausted.

It wasn’t exactly a lazy day with her and Coran finishing the preparations to leave Arus, the Paladins training,  _ and _ planning an impromptu thank you and farewell party for the Arusians. Their guests were also particularly…excitable. It was more like having to deal with a large amount of children all at the same time.

Still, she plastered a smile on her face as she started down at the king. "Thank you, Your Majesty, for that... wonderful production.” Did that sound as bad as she thought it did? Allura really hoped not. “It saddens me that we must leave tomorrow, but we must continue our battle with Zarkon and spread peace throughout the universe."

She held out the little device that was in her hand. It was an Altean communicator that could connect to the castle, no matter how far away they were. “Please accept this gift. This will allow you to contact us anytime you need help. Arus will be the first planet in the Voltron Alliance." Maybe she should have  _ asked _ if they wanted to be a part of it? Well, judging from the cheers from the King and the other Arusians, they were all on board for the idea.

_ Maybe _ she should have run the concept of an overall alliance by the Paladins too, but she was pretty sure she had that aspect of it all figured out.

The little creatures still bowed to her for the most part, insisting on calling her Goddess. It was both flattering and odd, if she was honest.

She walked by where Keith and Lance were standing, a bit surprised to see them spending time together willingly, since she was under the impression that they didn’t like one another at all. Allura thought to stop and talk to them, particularly keen to talk to Keith after he’d been so receptive to her idea that he may have some Altean heritage (well, he hadn’t rejected the notion, and that’s what mattered). She didn’t really feel like being around Lance with how he endlessly flirted with her. Just the thought gave her a headache.

Instead, she met Keith’s eyes, paused for just a moment at his curious look, and muttered, “I need the strongest painkillers I can find.” She heard an amused snort from behind her as she continued on.

Perhaps she could find the mice, and go to a quiet spot for just a little while where no one would be bowing to her, praising every move that she made, or flirting with her. There was so much to do, and being idle wouldn’t do at all, but a moment to gather her breath might be nice.

…

“What was  _ that _ ?”

Keith looked away from Allura’s retreating form back to Lance, whose brows were pinched, nose wrinkled like he smelled something particularly unpleasant.

He raised an eyebrow, not following him. “What was what?” They’d actually been getting along, trying to compare what it felt like to pilot Blue and Red, and it was  _ nice _ . When he wasn’t jumping down his throat, Keith found that he liked Lance. Even if he found him  _ super _ confusing at the same time.

“The Princess?” Lance tried to prompt, but Keith didn’t get what he was talking about.

Wait? Was this a  _ jealousy _ thing? Was Lance jealous that Allura was acting a little bit nicer to Keith while still ignoring him? Ha, if only he knew why.

Keith didn’t want a confrontation though, so he played dumb. “What?”

Lance eyed him for a moment before shaking his head, shifting the glass that Coran had given him only moments ago in his hand. “You know what? Never mind.” He glanced around before looking back. “So, like, I’m surprised you’re fine in a crowd like this.”

That genuinely surprised him. Keith blinked a few times at the thought. “Why? I don’t mind crowds.” It wasn’t like he got anxiety or anything being up in front of crowds, or mingling with large groups of people. It was more…personal interactions that got him. Was that weird? It was probably weird. People were weird. He just…didn’t get them.

Allura really was onto something with that being of alien descent thing.

“You just always ditched things like the dances at the Garrison,” Lance pointed out.

Keith was a  _ bit  _ surprised that Lance noticed this, but then again,  _ apparently _ they were rivals and Keith hadn’t realized that either. “Oh. I just didn’t like  _ those _ specifically. Didn’t go to one since sixth grade.” He shuddered a bit at the memory.

Lance’s eyes lit up and he leaned in a bit closer. “There’s a story there! Share the story!”

Did he  _ really _ want to share this story? It was kind of embarrassing. Then again, it wasn’t really embarrassing for  _ him _ so much as it was embarrassing for the other guy.

He wet his lips and asked, “You know James Griffin?” God, just the name made his blood pressure rise in a bad way.

A groan escaped Lance’s lips. “Douche whose nose is up the teachers’ asses? Wish I didn’t! More people need to punch him like you did!”

Keith snickered at that. Good to know that they were on the same page about that. “Well, we went to the same middle school and we were friends in grade six, and we were  _ supposed _ to hang out at the dance, cause that’s what friends do, right?”

Lance nodded slowly, but then a look of realization came over him and he breathed out, “Oh no.”

“Well,  _ he _ apparently had a sixth-grade crush on me.”

“Oh  _ no.” _

Why was this almost  _ fun _ to talk about? Was it Lance’s reaction? It was definitely Lance’s reaction. “I freaked out and ditched him.”

“ _ Oh no _ .” Lance looked like he was trying not to lose it.

Keith laughed. “He’s hated me ever since.” Hated him enough to go for the low-blow of bringing Keith’s non-existent parents into an argument like the little douche canoe he was.

Laughter exploded out of Lance and he  _ almost _ dropped his drink. “Oh my  _ god _ . That’s hilarious. Awkward-preteen Griffie rejected by awkward-preteen Keith and holding it against him for the rest of his life.

He waited until Lance got himself together to finish off with the last detail he skipped over, relishing the laughter. He actually had a pretty nice laugh and smile when he wasn’t being an overly flirtatious jerk.

Wait,  _ what _ ? Oh no. His brain was  _ not _ going there. He  _ refused _ . Admitting that Lance was attractive was very different compared to  _ liking _ things about him. That led to  _ feelings _ and nope, Keith was not doing this.

He shoved that thought out of his mind to finish his story. “To be fair, my foster mother was supposed to drive us both home, but I told her that he got picked up already. He didn’t.” Naturally, Griffin’s mom lost her shit at his foster mother, and that was probably what got the ball rolling to take him out of that place, which was honestly one of the best foster homes he had, and put into one of the worst before settling on leaving him at the Group Home.

Keith also refused to let those memories overtake him. Not now. Thankfully, Lance’s cackle was enough to tear him away from those thoughts. He leaned on him to try and tried to catch his balance. “Oh my  _ god _ . That’s the best story  _ ever _ !”

The Arusians must have thought that he was talking about  _ their _ story, because they did their very distinctive chant in response.

Hunk made his way over to them, carefully sniffing the drink in his hand. “We should make something like that.”

Lance blinked the tears away from his eyes as he caught his breath and stood up straight, focusing on his friend instead. “Like what?”

“You know, like, a cheer.” Hunk motioned to the Arusians. “Like, a team cheer that we do.”

“Hmm,” Lance hummed thoughtfully, clearly liking the idea. “Yeah, okay! How about…” He trailed off before snapping his fingers. “I say ‘Vol’ and you say ‘Tron’. Volt—“

He turned his attention to Keith so suddenly that it startled him. “Uh…Vol—tron?”

“No!” Lance shook his head, “No, no, no, no, no. The cheer includes the instructions. I say 'Vol',” he motioned towards himself before motioning to Keith, “and you say..."

“Vol-tron?” Keith asked slowly. He got what Lance was trying to do, but  _ why _ ? It would make more sense for everyone just to cheer Voltron all together at the same time? Otherwise how would they know who would start the cheer? Cause someone would have to start it. Also who would respond to it? Just the thought made Keith’s hands feel a bit clammy. Why did Lance have to be so complicated?

At least Hunk looked as confused as he felt, but from the way his brown eyes darted between him and Lance, it might not be for the same reason.

“We’ll work on it,” Lance said with a sigh.

Keith shrugged and looked over at Hunk, who chuckled in return, very obviously amused. Both of them looked around in mild alarm as a disgusted squawk came from Lance. He lowered the glass away from his lips and stared at it as if it had insulted him (Keith knew that look well already).

“Coran, what  _ is _ this?” Lance demanded, motioning to his cup as the Altean passed by.

“Oh, this is nunvill,” Coran replied, positively delighted. “The nectar of the Gods.” He knocked back the rest of the drink, humming happily.

“It tastes like hot dog water and feet!” Lance cried out in protest.

“He’d actually know that,” Hunk added with a slight grimace. Both of Keith’s eyebrows shot up at that, but Hunk just shook his head. “It’s a long story.” He decided not to push it, because Hunk looked just a little bit traumatized.

“Yes,” Coran agreed, though he clearly had no clue what a hot dog was. Keith doubted there was even an Altean translation close to it. “Makes a wonderful hair tonic as well.” He dabbed a bit of it on his mustache, and Keith swore that he could actually see it shine.

Lance clapped his hand over his mouth, gagging a little bit. He looked like he’d rather phase out of existence than go on knowing he drank the hotdog-foot-hair-tonic drink (he was probably being dramatic about it, honestly).

“Is he okay?” he whispered to Hunk.

Hunk frowned and leaned forward, looking at Lance’s face with concern. The two of them kind of hovered around him, waiting to see what he’d do next, but nothing happened.

Keith reached out and tapped his shoulder, and Lance full-on fell to the ground in a miserable heap. “I’m going to die,” Lance moaned miserably.

“He’s fine,” Hunk assured him.

He tilted his head slightly, and decided that everyone on this ship was absolutely ridiculous.

…

Humans confused Coran on several levels. Lance’s reaction to nunvil just didn’t make sense. It was a wondrous drink! Surely he was being dramatic.

Another strange human thing was definitely the behavior of their Black Paladin. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed as his eyes darted back and forth between the entrance, and the busy hall behind him. It didn’t seem like he was having any fun at all. In fact, he looked almost sickly.

Coran inched forward and asked, "Not feeling well? Try some nunvil. Settles the stomach and brightens your smile."

That didn’t get the right kind of response at all. Instead, Shiro’s shoulders tensed as he said, "I'm not sure we should be letting everyone wander in and out of the castle like this. It doesn't seem safe."

“The Arusians won’t hurt anything—“ they heard a loud crash behind them “…much.” He cringed a bit at the bad timing. He cleared his throat and said, "Besides, it's only fair to let them see the inside of a castle that's been sitting on their planet for so long."

Shiro frowned at him. “You said yourself that they probably explored it on their own time. It’s not like they couldn’t get in anywhere. They had 5,000 years to figure something out.” He pushed himself up away from the wall. “Who knows when or how Zarkon will attack again. Just because something is small and seems innocent enough, doesn’t mean that it is.”

“Well, no,” Coran agreed. “But perhaps—“

“You saw that  _ thing _ they sent after us,” Shiro pointed out to him. “I  _ knew _ the prisoner it was made from. Or based off of. I  _ killed _ him almost a year ago.”

Coran grimaced at the thought of the robeast. It was certainly a horrific thing.

“I don’t know how I know, but I know it was actually him. If they can do that, what  _ can’t _ they do?” Shiro asked, and in that moment, Coran realized just how young Shiro actually was too. Yes, he was an adult, but he was still so young to have faced everything that he had so far. It made him wish that he had a concrete answer to give him.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted, not wanting to lie. While he really wanted to protect the younger Paladins from the ugliness of the world, he knew he couldn’t do that with Shiro, especially since he was right. If the Galra could change a deceased gladiator into a giant, monstrous robeast, there was no reason they couldn’t make something small or innocent-looking too.

Shiro’s lips pressed into a firm line as he nodded his head. “I'm going to do a perimeter check, just in case." He pushed off of the wall and walked out of the room.

Coran watched him go, a frown on his face.

…

A couple squeaks from the mice let Allura know that she was completely alone on the balcony that overlooked the party below. She took the privacy to slump forward and let out a groan. It had been a long time since the castle held an event like this, even for her. Before Altea fell, before she was put to sleep, it wasn’t like they could host parties or entertain, not while fighting a war.

It was a bit more tasking than she remembered.

She could only see three of her Paladins mingling with the Arusians as she requested. Keith and Hunk were talking to one another and a few of the Arusians. Lance looked like he was trying to hide his glass of nunvil somewhere.

“Look at them,” She said to the mice as they balanced on the railing beside her. “The new Paladins of Voltron, with the fate of the universe on their shoulders.”

Chulatt squeaked at her and motioned downwards.

“Yes,” Allura answered with a nod. “I truly do think that Keith has some Altean ancestry, and maybe it’s not a big deal, but it still…” How could she explain this properly? How could she convey that knowing  _ someone _ out there was like her, meaning there were possibly  _ more _ Alteans out there, meant to her? “It really does matter to me. It’s someone else who carries a bit of my— _ our _ proud and noble heritage, even if it’s distant.”

She glanced back down at the Paladins again just in time to see Keith drink nunvil. He immediately sprayed the entire drink over Hunk, who recoiled and wheeled away. Needless to say, the Red Paladin looked mortified as he stared at him. A second later, the taller of the two swung back around with food over his eyes.

“Oh no! It turned my eyes into food!”

For whatever reason, both of them started laughing hysterically, the Arusians around them mimicking the happy sound.

Allura scowled and crossed her arms in front of her. So much for her noble Paladins. Did they not understand that there was a certain decorum that they were supposed to have?

“I must portray strength,” she said out loud, more to herself than the mice. “I need to make it seem like I believe in them, so no one can tell how concerned I am about the fate of our mission.”

Plachu squeaked at her, and Allura’s face flushed. “Let’s…keep that a secret.” She didn’t need the mice spreading how she tried some of Coran’s nunvil earlier, and ended up spitting it out all over them too before cleaning them up. Nunvil was an acquired taste even for Alteans.

There were a flurry of squeaks that instantly caught her attention. She wasn’t the only one with secrets, was she? “Who else has secrets?”

Plachu then picked up Chulatt to mime what he was saying.

Her lips twitched upwards, unable to hide her smile. “Hunk tried to eat  _ what _ ? That is rather amusing.” What person tries to eat deep mined rock salt? Everyone knew it was supposed to be used sparingly. Humans seemed quite delicate, so it wouldn’t at all surprise her if their stomachs were the same.

Allura shifted slightly, unable to hide her excitement. Even when she was younger, she didn’t really get to interact with many Alteans her own age, but she  _ did _ have penpals back in Altea from other noble families that she could communicate with, and she missed the gossip. Honestly, she felt as if she knew their secrets, she could truly know how to connect with the others.

“What other secrets?” she asked excitedly, knowing that they would provide.

Chulatt immediately started miming Lance, pretending to shoot with finger guns before posing. Imitating how Lance practiced his poses and spouted lines about his sharpshooting skills in front of the mirror every morning.

“That seems like Lance,” she said, unable to hide just how unimpressed she was. Really, Lance didn’t seem like he was a  _ bad _ person, he was just so young and immature. His flirting was awful, especially since he wouldn’t  _ stop _ . She wasn’t sure how else she could show just how uninterested she was.

Chulatt then made his eyes really big, blinking them rapidly before pointing at Chuchule, the only female amongst the mice.

“Pidge is a  _ what _ ?” She leaned over the balcony, eyes scanning for Pidge even though he—she hadn’t been there earlier. Sure enough, a bit of green caught Allura’s attention as she finally made an appearance.

Pidge looked around the room, as if checking to make sure no one was watching her, tipping a tray of food into her backpack, picking her ear with one of the empty skewers. She sniffed it and gagged.

Allura narrowed her eyes and looked at the mice. Surely they were kidding, right? “Are you sure?” They nodded their heads.

“Well then,” she pushed off of the balcony, “I’m getting to the bottom of this.” Pidge, a  _ girl _ ? It sounded too preposterous to be true.

By the time she got back down into the room below, she couldn’t spy Pidge’s green armour anywhere. There were too many little Arusians surrounding her, eager to talk. She needed to get them off of her.

Her eyes drifted around the room, instantly locking onto the three other Paladins. She made a beeline towards them, hoping that they would know where Pidge had gone.

“Hello, Princess. I should have guessed you were coming, since you light up the room with your presence,” Lance said to her with a cheesy grin.

She  _ scowled _ at him, and made a point of turning her back on him to face Keith. “Have you seen Pidge anywhere?”

Keith blinked, eyes darting from her, to Lance, and back again, before he shrugged. “No, not recently.”

Allura eyed the Arusians around them. While they weren’t wary of Keith, they  _ were _ a little less clingy to him than anyone else (outside of that one with the deep voice). She could use this to her advantage. “Help me look for her.” She didn’t wait for an answer, forcefully looping her arm through his and dragging him with her.

“Allura, what?” Keith asked, completely baffled by her actions.

Honestly, there was something nice about hearing just her  _ name _ . Not Princess, or Princess Allura, just Allura. She missed that. “I need to find Pidge, and the Arusians are driving me nuts. Glare at them and keep them off of me,” she whispered harshly.

Keith choked on a laugh and nodded his head, meeting her steps instead of allowing her to drag him.

…

Hunk chuckled loudly as he watched Allura practically dragged Keith off in a vice grip. The alarm on his face was more than a bit amusing.

“What does he have that I don’t?” Lance asked, and Hunk glanced over at him in time to see him pouting.

Now that Hunk thought about it, Allura did seem to linger around Keith more than the rest of them, standing closer, or showing up with him at the same time. It was kind of easy to see that the Princess was  _ probably _ interested in Keith, and he wouldn’t blame her. Despite the fact that he wanted  _ zero _ to do with relationships (because oh god, that was a lot of responsibility, and any relationship had the chance to become a permanent thing, and he wasn’t  _ ready _ for that, okay, because what if something like what happened with his sister, whose marriage imploded and she lost custody of her kids and had to move back in with them happened to him?!), he wasn’t oblivious to attractiveness, and his pansexual self was very much aware that Keith was attractive. And how attractive Allura was. Attractive people liked each other, right?

It occurred to him that Lance was  _ actually _ waiting for an answer. “Well, I mean, he  _ did _ get to spend extra time with her that first day. Good time for first impressions. And he kinda has that entire bad boy without a care thing going on. And he doesn’t drop awful lines on her.”

Lance spluttered at that. “My lines are amazing!” He took a sip of whatever new thing it was that he got to drink. “This one isn’t that bad. I guess we should get used to this space juice. Who knows when we'll get back home again?"

That was something Hunk thought about a lot lately. He thought about Earth and home, and how much he wanted to go back. He also thought about how they were warned of the dangers of going home, including luring the Galra back there. If it was an option though, he’d probably jump at the first chance he got to leave and go back.

It really didn’t look like there were going to be any possibilities anytime soon, because Zarkon was bad to the bone.

Hunk was normally an open book, but sometimes he had to keep things inside, and he didn’t want to be even more vulnerable around Lance. “Yeah, _ if _ ever.”

There was a long pause before Lance asked, “What?"

Hunk shrugged. “I mean, if this Zarkon guy has been ruling for 5,000 years, how long do you think it will take for us to fix it? You know, if we live." Cause when he thought about it, it was honestly crazy to Hunk that they were expected to take down an Empire that had gone on for  _ 5,000 years _ with seven people and one giant robot.

“Right,” Lance muttered, “ _ that _ .”

Hunk grabbed at the alien food nearby. Some things were really good so far, some things were really, really bad. It made him miss even the Garrison’s food, because while it wasn’t the best, at least it was consistent and familiar. There was something amazing about exploring food from other worlds like no human had done before, but he still missed those soggy chicken nuggets (weirdly enough). Thinking about it made his chest tighten, so he quickly asked. "Hey, what do you think the chances are of us landing on a nacho planet?"

Lance stared down at his glass and shrugged. “There’s only one planet with Varadero Beach, a pizza stand that faces the ocean, garlic knots, and my mom’s hugs…” He cleared his throat loudly as he turned away. “Sorry. This nunvill is getting to me. Gotta go.” He quickly walked off.

Hunk frowned with confusion. What the heck was that? Surely Lance wasn’t upset. Yeah, the guy cared about his family, but he was easy going and seemed to be having a great time so far. He was a very forward guy. If there was a problem, he’d talk about it.

So all Hunk could do was take him at his word. There was really no reason not to.

…

Pidge looked around nervously, Rover hovering by her side. Her little robot companion was her only source of comfort at the moment. He was real, reliable, and what she was used to. People, they were complicated. Robots were complex, yes, but there was also a simplistic beauty to them. She’d never come across a robot that called her names, or tugged her ponytail.

They were so much better than people.

She wandered around the crowded room, avoiding conversations (and eye contact), mentally going over what else she had to do. She finally loaded up the Altean pod that she altered with an emergency booster, and stocked up on some supplies. Pidge didn’t get much data from Sendak’s ship before Shiro dragged her away, but it was enough for her to find out that there was another prison ship that didn’t seem too far away. Well, not for how quickly alien ships all travelled. She was going to find her family and get them home. They  _ had _ to be there.

The hardest goodbye was out of the way already. She barely got to know Green, but saying goodbye to the robotic lion had been oddly emotional.

_ “Goodbye girl. It’s been fun. But I can’t keep doing this with people. I’m just not like them. You’ll find someone else.” _

Well, sort of saying goodbye.

_ “No.” _

_ “Huh?” _

_ “My Paladin. No. I’ll go too.” _

It blew her mind that Green actually spoke to her in words instead of the code that she was already used to. Also, it made her a bit nervous. Surely it wasn’t possible that Green would  _ follow _ her, right?

Then again, it was Blue that made the wormhole that got them there, not Lance (Green and Yellow doing the same later on). Then, Green and Black moved from the castle on their own to protect her and Shiro. Keith also mentioned something about Red protecting him in the Galra ship.

Just how sentient  _ were _ the lions? Would they be like that robeast they fought yesterday? If they got cut open, would they find rational things like wires and gears, or would it be a bloody mess? Were they just super advanced AIs, or like, some kind of Eldritch Abomination hiding behind a metal surface? What  _ were _ they?

“Pidge!”

She jumped, looking around wildly to see Allura making her way towards her. Oh no, did she know already? Allura seemed like the type to just  _ know _ . Also, Pidge was pretty sure she caught the mice spying on her before.

Pidge blinked when she realized that Allura’s arm was looped around a  _ super _ confused Keith. He was giving Pidge this look that screamed ‘what did you do’, but she didn’t really have an answer.

“Thank you for spotting her for me,” Allura said to Keith without looking at him. “Please excuse us.”

Did she really just  _ drag _ him over here to tell him that, instead of letting him go when he spotted her? Keith looked at Allura like he thought she was genuinely bonkers (Pidge could relate to that), before he left.

A part of her kind of wished that he’d stick around, but if Allura was about to go off, she didn’t really want Keith around just in case he agreed with the Princess. He was super intimidating, and Pidge was pretty sure he’d shank someone without hesitation if they pissed him off enough, and he  _ always _ seemed pissed off. Yeah, so maybe it was best that he left.

“So,” Allura said, drawing her out of her thoughts again, “Pidge, we haven’t had the chance to really…talk.” She looked like she was struggling for the right words. “Tell me about yourself.”

What? Huh, maybe Allura  _ didn’t _ realize Pidge’s plan. Maybe this was something she was doing with all the Paladins. Well, Pidge could certainly hope to distract her. "Well, I like peanut butter, and I like peanut butter cookies, but I hate peanuts. They're so dry. Also, I sweat a lot. I-I mean, in general, unrelated to the peanuts." She was sweating a lot now, wasn’t she? God she needed to get out of here.

She tried to skirt around Allura, but the Princess got in her way.

“I suppose I was thinking of something a little more…personal?” She winked at her. “We have a lot in common."

What the heck? Allura was a tall, beautiful space princess who likely never had people pick on her a day in her life. She was probably an example of what to be on Altea. Meanwhile, she was a short human girl who looked like a boy and had lost basically everything. She was having a hard time to see what they had in common. “Like what?”

The Princess didn’t seem to expect the question, and scrambled for an answer. "Oh, well...both of us had our fathers taken away by Zarkon."

"Yeah, but I'm going to get mine back,” Pidge shot back.

Someone once told Pidge that she was a mean person, that she was careless when it came to the feelings of others. They even claimed it was why she didn’t have any friends. Pidge didn’t believe them, of course, but every one and a while, she slipped up and definitely made things uncomfortable, or said the wrong thing. The look on Allura’s face told Pidge that she had absolutely gone too far this time.

This is why robots were easier to deal with.   


She’d probably lose it at someone if they said that about  _ her _ father. “Sorry! I...I really didn’t mean to—“

Allura shrugged it aside quickly, the hurt replaced with an air of indifference that couldn’t possibly be real. "No, I understand. I just want you to know that you can confide in me. If there's anything you ever want to talk about..." She trailed off suggestively, as if waiting for Pidge to confide in her for some reason.

That was actually a bit nerve-wracking. Maybe Allura  _ did _ know. She had crazy magical powers, who knew how they actually worked? Maybe she could read minds. Maybe the mice were little snitches. What  _ else _ could she be talking about?”

“I  _ do _ have something to tell you,” Pidge admitted. In the end, she had to do this. There was no way around it.

Allura straightened up, having bent over a bit to talk to her face to face (which…wasn’t how you were supposed to talk to shorter people,  _ Allura _ ). She lit up, and in a sing-song voice, said, “I knew it!” She lowered her tone to a whisper. “What is it?”

Her reaction was  _ super _ weird. She looked almost overjoyed, like she was incredibly excited for Pidge to finally tell her. That was a good thing, wasn’t it?

"I'm leaving Team Voltron." There, she said it. It was like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Allura looked like she was about to speak but then paused, confusion passing over her. “Wait,  _ what _ ?”

Pidge matched her confused expression briefly. Wasn’t that what Allura wanted to hear? Maybe she should explain things a little more? "I decrypted the little bit of information from the Galra ship, and found that prisoners were transferred over to another one. That’s where my family has to be. I've made up my mind. I'm leaving tonight."

Allura’s eyes went wide, and then narrowed. “Pidge, you  _ can’t _ . You’re one of five Paladins. It’s your sacred duty to defend the universe.”

Anger boiled up in Pidge, a firework with a very short fuse. How  _ dare _ she throw that in her face?

What good was a universe without her family in it?

"My first priority is to find my family! I thought you of all people would understand. If you had a chance to get your father back, wouldn't you?" The princess scowled at her, so unimpressed it wasn’t funny at all. Whatever, it didn’t matter. She wasn’t the boss of her. “I’m sorry.” She really wasn’t. “I should go tell everyone else.”

“Pidge!” Allura called out to her, but she ignored the Princess. There was someone else that she had to find and talk to, someone she’d been scouting for this entire time.

Pidge eventually found Shiro outside of the castle, scanning around the exterior. He didn’t seem too busy, but she still hesitated to approach him. “Shiro?” He looked up at her, a kind smile on his face that made her throat restrict slightly. No, she could do this. She had to be strong. “I need to talk to you.”

…

“Oh, come on!” Lance slumped down at his station on the bridge of the castle (why did a  _ castle _ need a bridge anyway?), trying to get  _ something _ to work on it, any sort of navigation thing he could use as a map. Was Allura the only one allowed to make star charts pop up?

He didn’t want to ask her, because very clearly, she would rather be somewhere else with Keith. The idea kind of made him want to hurl. Hurl what, he didn’t know. Vomit? His fist?  _ Himself _ ?

Good  _ fucking _ god, he was a mess.

“Mind if I join you?”

Lance wasn’t proud of the surprised squeak that escaped him. He looked up at Coran with wide eyes, a flush crossing over his cheeks. Thankfully, the Altean didn’t acknowledge his embarrassment. “Uh, yeah. Sure. I was just trying to…well…um…how far away from Earth do you think we are, Coran?”

The Altean hummed thoughtfully. “Let’s take a look.” He moved to the main controls, quickly bringing up a holographic map. “Based on the coordinates from Blue, this is Earth here.” He pointed at a little blip on the map, and then started scrolling, the stars shooting by quickly. “And we’re aaaaaallll the waaaaay oveeeeeeer...”Lance’s stomach squeezed as the stars shot by. The longer Coran went on, the sicker he felt. Finally, he came to a stop. “Here.” That was really,  _ really _ far.

Lance crossed his arms in front of him. "You ever notice how far the planets are from each other, Coran?"

“Yes, haven't you been paying attention?" Paying attention to  _ what _ ? They’d been on this planet for the past few days. “It’s not too bad with the kind of technology that we have now though.”

Lance stood and made his way over to the Altean, staring up at the stars around him. “Yeah, but I mean, like, they're really, really far away. Like, say, Earth? It's so far, I can't even see it. The... The blue oceans, the white clouds, green grass... I can't see any of it."

His throat constricted, and Lance blinked rapidly to try and stop himself from crying. God, he missed home  _ so _ much. He never apologized to Veronica. What was the last thing he said to Rachel? Marco? Luis? Everyone else? How was his grandfather doing? He’d been feeling a bit under the weather. “I know we're supposed to be brave paladins and the Defenders of the Universe or whatever, but, honestly? I just want to go home."

"You miss Earth. I understand. I miss Altea,” Coran said to him, his voice becoming soft. "If I could go home, I would.” He paused and looked towards him. “That’s why what we’re doing is so important, so that you always have an Earth to return to. It’s okay to miss it in the meantime though.”

His lip trembled slightly as he desperately held it together. "I miss rain, and splashing in puddles." He’d always loved water, but even the ocean on this world looked wrong. He didn’t even want to go near it. It wasn’t right.

“Rain?” Coran asked curiously.

"Yeah. It's water that falls from the sky?"

"Oh, we had that on Altea. Only, it wasn't water, more like rocks. Razor-sharp and boiling-hot. Oh, they could knock a hole right in your head. Then there was the glass too. Good thing Alteans have such strong hair and skin. Not like your fragile stuff.”

Lance, not sure if Coran was ignoring him, trying to make him feel better, replied, “Sounds fun.”

He sighed, his smile not meeting his eyes. “Yeah.”

The two of them looked up at the stars again, neither quite sure what to say.

…

Shiro couldn’t believe this was happening. Well, no, he should have seen this coming. He felt it before. For two Paladins who stepped on one another’s toes an awful lot, the right side of Voltron was actually a pretty cohesive team when need be. The left side though, there was some friction there. Of course, Shiro knew what it was. Where it came from. It was why he should have seen this coming.

It proved to be far too loud outside, so they moved into the main corridor of the castle, and then Pidge broke the news to him.

“Pidge, no,” he said, his eyes wide.

She straightened her shoulders and glared at him fiercely. “The download from the Galra ship was enough to at least get me in the right direction to start my search. I have a pod all ready to go." She paused thoughtfully. “Though Green said something about following me so I’m not sure what that means but it’s fine.”

Was she listening to herself? She was going to go running off in search of her father and Matt on a  _ piece _ of information that could potentially be wrong, corrupted, or out of date. It wasn’t like running off to the Garrison or even anywhere on Earth. This was moving around  _ galaxies _ .

Pidge was brilliant, but her age was really, really showing.

The sound of footsteps caught Shiro’s attention before he could formulate a proper response. Allura was storming towards them, Hunk and Keith flanking her sides. Hunk looked a bit stunned, and Keith looked, well,  _ furious _ .

“You can’t leave!” Keith burst out as they drew closer, overtaking Allura’s strides so that he was at the front of the group.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Pidge shot back.

Keith narrowed his violet eyes at her. “I thought you were  _ smart _ . If you leave, we can't form Voltron. And that means we can't defend the universe against Zarkon. You're not the only one with a family. All these Arusians have families. Everyone in the universe has families."

Keith had a very, very good point. That was one good thing. When it came to things like missions, he was almost always able to look at what needed to be done in a practical sense first. Sometimes though, he ran the risk of completely overlooking the personal aspect of things.

"Yeah, I have a family. They live on Earth. I want to be with them. Is that—Is that, like, a thing that can happen?" Hunk asked, looking around with curious earnestness. Shiro felt like he was going to be sick.

Allura looked horrified. “You want to leave too?”

"Of course I do,” Hunk admitted immediately, before holding up his hands as if that would pacify the terrified Princess. “Look, Voltron is super-cool, don't get me wrong, but I never signed up for a lifetime in space fighting aliens."

Shiro saw the moment Keith absolutely lost it. Despite what most people thought, he was actually pretty good at controlling his temper. He worked really hard on it. Every once and a while though, it would burst out uncontrollably.

Keith took a step towards Pidge, who took a step back, highly alarmed. “You’re putting the lives of  _ two _ people over the lives of  _ everyone _ else in the entire galaxy—no, universe!” She cringed away from him as Keith yelled at her. “Two people who might not even be alive anymore! What if the Galra get back to Earth before you do and Voltron’s not there to stop it?! What happens then? Everyone dies, but it’s fine cause Pidge got her daddy back?!”

Shiro grabbed Keith’s arm and tugged him away from her. “That’s enough!” He squeezed his arm slightly. “Keith! That’s  _ not _ how a team works. People have to want to be a part of it. They can't be forced."

Normally, Keith was quick to relent to him, but  _ not _ when he was all fired up. No, that’s when he was ready to argue with everything and everyone. That was when he didn’t care about pulling punches. “You’d know about that, wouldn’t you? Walking away from a team for some half-assed mission that ends up going wrong.”

Shiro’s eyes went wide and it felt like his heart stopped for a beat. Yeah, he knew what Keith meant. Walking away from Adam. Walking away from _him_.

When he left, Shiro was sure that everything would be fine, but Keith wound up expelled and alone, and Adam apparently wasn’t mentally okay to take care of him at one point. Thinking about it made him feel sick. It also made him angry, because how  _ dare _ Keith throw that back in his face.

Shiro was so,  _ so _ close to snapping back at him, and he could tell that Keith knew that. That Keith was waiting for the metaphorical punch. He was always waiting for it. Shiro wasn’t going to throw the fact that Keith pushed people away in his face, no matter how much he  _ wanted _ to. He was better than that.

“That’s not how  _ Voltron _ works,” Allura spoke up. Her colourful eyes were fierce, a twin to Keith’s ferocity. “I can’t believe you’d be so—so selfish!”

“I just want my father back!” Pidge screamed, sounding ready to cry.

“And I want mine back! But he’s  _ gone _ . All of my people are gone! My entire planet! He’s gone and all I can do is stop the person that took him away!”

“Stop!” Shiro yelled, stepping in front of Pidge. “Allura! Keith! That’s  _ enough _ .” They were right, of course they were right. Pidge was just a  _ child _ though. Well, Keith, Lance, and Hunk were too, but she was younger still compared to them. Their frustrations and points were valid, but this was just wrong.

They both backed away, similar scowls on their faces, and Shiro realized, in that moment, that despite being different species from very different planets and periods of time, Keith and Princess Allura were cut from the same cloth.

God, he could feel a headache coming on.

Shiro turned to look down at Pidge. "If you want to leave, we won't try to stop you. But, please, just think about what you're doing."

There definitely was a little bit of hesitation and conflict, which gave Shiro a bit of hope. Then she shook her head. “You're going to have to find someone else to pilot the Green Lion."

“It’ll be okay,” Shiro assured her.

“No, it  _ won’t _ ,” Allura burst out, and Shiro was a bit taken back, because she sounded close to tears. “That’s not how this works, Shiro. She  _ can’t _ walk away.”

“She is though,” Hunk pointed out simply. “I mean…we can just get other people to fly the lions, right? Then I can go home!”

“No! I told you before that the bond between a lion and Paladin is sacred,” Allura growled. “Green is going to follow Pidge if she leaves. Any of your lions would follow you. The only thing that truly breaks a bond with a lion is death.” Her eyes bore into Pidge. “If you leave, we will  _ never _ be able to form Voltron again. Do you understand?”

Pidge inhaled sharply before turning to walk away.

Allura actually grabbed her hair, tugging at it before wheeling around to look at Hunk, her eyes watery. “You might as well go too. Take Yellow. Spend time with your family until Zarkon comes and destroys everything!”

Hunk took a step back away from her with wide eyes. Shiro was about ready to defend him, but Keith put a hand on her arm and said, “Allura.”

She wrapped her arms around herself, but didn’t bother to apologize.

…

Altea had been a very beautiful place at one point. In a way, it reminded Lance of Earth with its blue skies and green grass, but there was so much of it that was just plain strange. He could clearly see the planet had rings (though they looked fake), the soil looked to be a minty green colour, and everything in general was just so…pastel-looking. Like someone took a picture of Earth and lightened all of the colours.

“It was a beautiful place,” he voiced his thoughts out loud, more for Coran’s benefit than his own. There was really nothing Coran could say to make him feel better about missing Earth, but he could at least let the old Altean talk.

“It was,” Coran agreed wistfully, because he was never going to see his home again. It wasn’t like they could just rewrite the universe and magic it back into existence. As nice as that would be, it sounded more like a poorly thought out, lazy ending to a sci-fi show. “I  _ do _ wish I could do something for Allura. The projection room where Alfor’s AI is stored can make it look like Altea, but it’s not the same thing. It would be nice to find a way to grow juniberries again.” He brought up an image of the pink flower.

“Huh, those look like lilies on Earth,” Lance noted. In fact, they looked a lot like stargazer lilies specifically.

Coran perked up a bit at that. “Really? Perhaps we can procure some of these ‘lilies’ and you can show me how to grow them for her.”

Lance couldn’t stop himself from snorting. “No thanks. I want  _ nothing _ to do with farming or growing things, not even flowers for Allura.” He frowned at the thought. Honestly, the farm that his family had at home became smaller and smaller over the years as everyone started branching out and doing their own things. His siblings always said that because he was the youngest, he was probably going to be the one to have to take it over, the one to stay there. There was  _ nothing _ that could make him genuinely want that future for himself.

Not only that, but as much as Allura might appreciate the gesture, Lance doubted she’d appreciate it from him. “She doesn’t even seem to tolerate me as a person like she does others.” His stomach twisted as he remembered how Allura seemed to be  _ clinging _ to Keith a little bit lately. If it would have been Hunk, he would have been a bit upset, but it being  _ Keith _ made it so much worse, though he wasn’t quite sure why. Lance  _ wanted _ to say it was because they were rivals, but that didn’t feel right too. It didn’t make sense to him.

“Ah, yes,” Coran grimaced and then cleared his throat. Lance waited for him to try and explain Allura’s behavior, and was a bit taken back when he said, “You  _ do _ come on a bit strong at times. Most of the time. Anyways, I’d recommend stopping that.”

Lance frowned. Okay, maybe he did come on a little strong, but he didn’t think it was  _ that _ bad. It wasn’t like he’d ever go beyond anyone’s boundaries if they told him to stop. He  _ liked _ pickup lines and flirting, because if you didn’t try, you didn’t get anywhere, right? Sure, sometimes he hammed things up a little bit more, but it was all in good fun. Yet, here was another person telling him to just stop being himself. “I think I’m going to head back to the party.” He turned to leave the room.

“Alright.” The stars and images from around them vanished. “I’ll join you.”

That wasn’t what Lance wanted, though he wasn’t quite sure what it was that he  _ did _ want. He didn’t really want to talk to Hunk anymore, not wanting to think more about home. He definitely didn’t want to talk to Allura or Keith.

He saw Pidge’s little drone float by them. Maybe he’d want to talk? Eh, maybe not. “Hey Rover.”

Actually, having a nice, dramatic debate sounded like a great idea. Maybe he’d be able to weasel another story out of Keith about preteen James Griffin (as much as Keith could irk him, he had nothing on Griffin).

Lance immediately came to a stop, looking back over his shoulder at the drone that was steadily moving towards the crystal. “Wait, where’s Pidge?” He’d never seen the little guy without him around.

Now, Lance liked to think that he had pretty good instincts (well…most of the time), and something in his gut was screaming at him that something was very,  _ very _ wrong.

Then Rover started blinking rapidly, and he instantly knew what it was. He’d seen it in so many action movies before.

Time seemed to slow down around him as he realized that  _ he _ was wearing thick armour, but Coran most certainly was not. Maybe his suit was made from the same flexible armour the black part of their suits were, Lance didn’t know, but it was nothing compared to his white armour.

He didn’t remember yelling Coran’s name. He didn’t remember  _ throwing _ himself at him. The next thing he did remember was a loud, shrieking bang, heat, light, and a lot of pain up and down the exposed part of his lower back, thighs, and head.

Then nothing at all.

…

The explosion that rocked the castle nearly sent everyone tumbling to the floor. It was a combined effort, but they all managed to stay upright.

The Arusians were screaming, blocking up the entrance as they rushed out outside. Allura fumbled with her bracelet for a moment, before she managed to project a map of the castle, one area blinking red. “The bridge! Oh no!” She tore off towards the castle, all four of the Paladins yelling at her to wait, but she couldn’t wait.

She really hoped that this was an accident. There were things in the castle that had the potential to be a bit unstable. It being anything else was absolutely unthinkable.

Her mind rushed over Keith’s distrust of Klaizap, pointing out that not all small, cute things can be trusted. It rushed over Shiro insisting that he was going to stand guard by the front entrance. She thought about every possible scenario, and yet, she wasn’t ready for what they found.

Her heart plummeted when she saw the smoke in the room, Coran pushing himself up off of the floor with rubble all around him.

“What happened?” Shiro cried out, alarmed.

Coran groaned as he shook his head, trying to remember exactly what it was that happened but found the events blurry. He didn’t even quite remember what he’d been doing in this room. “I’m not sure.”

Allura’s eyes turned up as the smoke began to clear, and nearly doubled over when she realized what she was looking at. “The crystal!” Oh Ancients, without the crystal to power the castle, they couldn’t travel anywhere at all. They couldn’t defend themselves. Not a single thing could run without it.

Then her heart leapt when she saw that there was more than rubble on the ground. “Lance!” 

It was like the air had been sucked out of the room, and time came to a stop, as everyone’s eyes fell upon the unmoving Paladin sprawled out on the floor.

Shiro was the first one to snap out of his shock, lurching forward and falling to his knees. “Lance?” He touched the boy’s shoulder, panic rising in him when he didn’t move or respond in any way. “Lance!”

Oh god, he wasn’t breathing, was he? Shiro’s throat constricted, as he could hear a roaring in his ears that might have been his heart beating, but sounded more and more like an audience screaming and cheering for blood and death.

“We have to get Lance to the infirmary!” Pidge burst out as she pulled herself out of her horror. Why did it sound like her teeth were chattering? Was there something wrong with them? She reached up, pausing when she realized just how badly her hands were shaking.

“Without the crystal, the castle has no power,” Allura admitted, twisting her fingers together and holding them close to her chest. She didn’t know what to do. This was her fault, wasn’t it? She agreed to let the Arusians into the castle. She was the one that let their guard down.

“Are you telling me we don’t have any backups in case the main power source goes?” Keith asked, sharp eyes glancing at her twisting fingers before rising to her face.

Allura stared at him blankly, like the concept never occurred to her. “No.”

“He doesn’t look good,” Shiro muttered, and there was something about his voice that caught Keith’s attention. Something almost far-away. Keith watched as he reached out, and it looked like he was about ready to pick him up.

Panic hit Keith as he knelt beside Shiro, grabbing onto his flesh arm. “What are you doing? Don’t move him!” They all had to take first aid and survival training classes, so why were they all acting like this? He looked around at everyone else. Pidge was shaking. Allura was still twisting her hands. Hunks eyes were wide and wet. Coran was still a bit dazed.  


Keith swallowed and leaned over Lance. He was lying on his stomach on the floor, head resting to the side. His skin was paler than normal, but it seemed like his suit had done a solid job of protecting him from the explosion. There were a couple crystal shards dug into the softer armour on his lower back, but nothing seemed to be in too deeply (he wasn’t going to pull anything out to test that though).

Instead, he leaned down so that he was almost face to face with Lance and waited. Hunk asked him what he was doing, but Keith just held up a finger. Relief rushed through him when he felt warm breath on his face.

“He’s breathing,” Keith said, pushing himself back up and looking towards Shiro.

Shiro internally screamed at himself to get it together. To stay  _ here _ because his team needed him. “Right. Good call.” Bless Keith for being able to keep a cool head in the middle of bad situations. It was part of what made him such a good pilot, including the emergency simulations at the Garrison. “We can’t move him until we find a way to check his injuries.” He was just going to yank him up, wasn’t he? Just because it looked like there were only a few small puncture wounds, didn't mean he was okay. He could still have internal bleeding from the impact. His head was exposed too, so he could have a concussion. God, his spine could be really messed up and he could have paralyzed him!

“The suits!” Coran said suddenly as he knelt down on Shiro’s other side. “They can check your vitals and you can scan others too.”

Shiro allowed the Altean to lift his arm and swiftly activate the feature in question on his cuff. It scanned Lance, bringing up a projection of Lance with some red spots.

“Hm, those crystals aren’t in deep at all, just a few splinters really,” Coran said as his eyes flew over the image. “We should take those out just in case.” He frowned, not liking what he saw. “There does seem to be some internal bleeding that’s a bit worrisome, but he should be okay until we can get him help. It would appear that he has a concussion as well. Luckily your suits are able to withstand immense pressure and temperatures so there are no burns. His spine and neck are okay to move, but we must be careful if we do so.” He was quick to shut it off.

Shiro got the distinct feeling that Coran didn’t want them to see everything. Given how everyone, including him, was sort of losing it, that was probably a good call for now if there was nothing they could do about it at the moment.

They all jumped when another yell reached them. A moment later, the Arusian King burst into the room. “Lion warriors, our village is under attack! We need help!"

Keith looked at Shiro, who was once again staring down at Lance with a conflicted expression. He then looked up at Hunk and Pidge, who were still shaking and stunned. Standing up, he said, “Let’s get to the lions.”

“You can’t.” Allura grimaced a bit as he looked towards her sharply. “They’re sealed in their hangars. There's no way to get them out. We're defenseless."

Keith breathed out, nostrils flaring slightly. “You’re telling me you don’t have a backup for  _ that _ too?” He just  _ barely _ managed to hold back the unfair, biting comment of seeing why Alteans lost the war with the Galra. “They can rip through the walls.”

They probably could. Allura had yet to hear of a material that could actually puncture through the hull of the lions (their weak spots tended to be energy based, or at the joints).

“You can’t do that,” Coran warned him sternly. “You’ll ruin the integrity of the hull and we won’t be able to fly it.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Hunk broke out of his stunned silence. He tore his eyes away from Lance’s prone form on the floor because he couldn’t look at him. He couldn’t. Sure, Lance could be a bit of a jerk sometimes, specifically to him, but that didn’t mean Hunk wanted him to die! He was still his best friend!

He needed to focus on something that wasn’t his friend on the floor, instead trying to understand what the quiznak Coran was talking about.

“The castle’s also the ship we’ll be setting out in,” the Altean man said, very confused because he thought that was obvious.

“Will you not help us?” the King butted in accusingly.

“We’re going to!” Keith burst out. “We just…” He trailed off and looked down at Lance, who groaned in pain. Something inside of him squeezed tightly, leaving him feeling a bit helpless. If there was one thing Keith hated, it was feeling helpless.

“This is bad,” Hunk muttered wildly. He blinked his eyes, trying to stop his tears. “This is  _ very _ bad.” Oh god, he couldn’t breathe.

Suddenly, Keith was in front of him. “Don’t panic! Hunk, look at me. Focus on me.” He forced himself to look down, meeting his violet eyes. “Good job. I need you to hold it together, okay? The Arusians need us. Lance needs us. I need you to try and get out of your head.” He said it with an air of someone who knew exactly what a panic attack could entail.

Hunk took a couple deep breaths and slowly nodded his head. “Right. Right. You’re right. I’m okay. I’ve got this.” Keith eyed him for a moment before nodding his head.

“The structure that holds the crystal seems to be entirely intact,” Coran noted.

“So if we can get a new one, we can get everything working again?” Hunk asked hopefully.

Coran nodded his head. “That’s right. But to get a new crystal, we need to make a stop.”

“My pod!” Pidge burst out. “The one that I was loading! We can use that! I left the bay door open.” She’d been anticipating someone trying to stop her, and had everything ready to go to just  _ run _ .

The Altean man nodded again and looked around to everyone else. So many young, unsure and terrified eyes looked back to him. “I can use the scanner in the pod to see if there's a Balmera nearby. Hunk, you come with me. I'll need someone big to help me carry the crystal." Not to mention, he was sure that if Hunk stayed here, he was probably going to have a nervous breakdown.

“A Balmera?” he parroted.

“I’ll explain on the way.”

Keith watched as Pidge led Hunk and Coran away before looking back at his brother. “Shiro?” He wanted to know what they should do next, but there was something about the man’s eyes that made him hesitate. This wasn’t his brother looking back at him. He was in no condition to make decisions right now. “I’ll go see what's happening at the Arusian village." It was better than staying here and seeing Lance so…lifeless.

He stood up, intending on following the Arusian King out to the village, when Allura grabbed his arm.

“Let me switch into my battle suit and I’ll go with you,” she met his gaze, bright eyes swimming with both determination and guilt. “I brought this on the poor Arusians.” She couldn’t help but think about how they should have just left. They shouldn’t have had a party with no sense of security. 

She should have fought her father’s decision to send the lions away harder, because then they wouldn’t have landed on Arus in the first place.

Keith nodded his head, and she hurried away, stopping to mutter something to the Arusian King, who left the room as well.

He looked back to Shiro, who was still staring down at Lance. He knelt beside him again, but he didn’t touch him. “Come on, Shiro. Please.” He waited for his brother to come back to himself. “We need you.” He could only do so much on his own with everyone else freaking out.

“I—I…yeah. Yeah. Sorry.” Shiro blinked several times. “I just…in the arena…” He shook his head sharply and then looked at Keith. A surge of pride welled up within him at how  _ well _ he was handling the situation. He took a deep breath. “I’ll keep an eye on Lance and the entrance to the castle.”

“You can’t do both,” Keith pointed out worriedly. He looked towards Lance again. “You can’t move him. I can ask Allura to stay with you.”

“No.” He shook his head. Whatever was going on in the Arusian Village, he didn’t want Keith to be alone. “Pidge will be back in a minute. Worst case scenario. Go.” He’d have to tell Keith how grateful he was for how he stepped up to help after this was all over.

Keith bit his lip before he stood and nodded. They both looked up towards the door as Allura charged back in, already dressed in her other outfit. It was actually really impressive.

“I’ve asked the mice to stand watch at the front of the castle,” Allura informed Shiro. “They’ll come and tell you if someone or something is coming.” She looked up towards Keith. “Ready?"

“Let’s go.” Keith cast one last glance back at Shiro and Lance before quickly following Allura out the door. The sooner they figured this mess out, the better.

…

Pidge stood on the edge of the pod, watching as Coran used the controls for some kind of long distance scan. Alien tech was truly amazing. They couldn’t get those type of scans beyond the moon back on Earth.

"It's our first bit of luck. There's a source not too far. We won't need a wormhole to get there, thankfully,” Coran said, and a projection of a round creature popped up in front of them. Pidge wanted to ask about it, but they needed to leave  _ now _ .

She leaned over a bit, pointing at the buttons in front of them that she drew over with her changes. "I made some modifications. There’s a cloaking device that I reverse-engineered from the invisible walls on the training deck. The second is a tank of booster fuel that I mounted on the fuel line." She knew they ran on some different kind of energy but it was really all she had to work with to give herself a boost in case of emergencies.

Coran brought up the updated schematics to look at them, his eyes widening in alarm. “Using that during flight could turn the whole pod into a bomb!"

Hunk looked  _ terrified _ at the thought. “What are the odds of  _ that _ happening?”

Coran shrugged. “I’m not sure. We’ll have to find someone who can calculate odds like that sometime.”

“Uh, yeah,” Pidge said and jumped back away from the pod. Maybe she needed a little more time and practice with altering Altean technology. “Maybe you shouldn’t use that one after all.”

“Ready to hit it?” Hunk called out.

“Right. Let’s go!” Coran replied.

Pidge took a few steps back as they activated the pod. She watched it lift up into the air and gave them a thumbs up as they flew out of the castle, her heart dropping a bit. She wasn’t going to be able to find her brother or father anytime soon. If she left just five minutes sooner, she’d be out there looking for them now.

Except, that meant that there would have been  _ nothing _ to use to find a new crystal for the castle, which meant that they wouldn’t be able to power the castle, which meant that they’d have no way to heal Lance, which meant—

She clapped her hand over her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut. Pidge forced herself to take a couple deep breaths. Maybe she could get a single healing pod up and running with a different power source or something? It was worth a shot. It was better than sitting around and thinking about what might have, or could, happen.

…

_ “Haha, what’s wrong with this person?” _

_ Shiro watched his mother’s head rise from the paperwork that she was going through, her eyebrows jumping up with surprise. “Takashi, what did I tell you about snooping through files?” _

_ “These ones are from the war,” he protested. “All these guys are gone now. I’m not looking through patient files.” He was bored and stuck in his mother’s office while his father was getting his treatment. _

_ She sighed and took the file from him. “You shouldn’t be looking through things like this anyway.” _

_ “But what happened to him?” _

_ A sad smile appeared on his face. “Too curious for your own good.” She scanned the file.  _

_ “I didn’t look at the name!” he protested, quickly handing it back to her. “I just wanted to help you scan them into digital copies.” _

_ She sighed and then smiled at him sadly. “I know. You’re a good boy that way.” Her smile faded as she looked at the file. “If you must know, this poor young man passed away after a battle from trauma. Sometimes it’s the injuries you can’t see that are the worst ones.” _

Shiro looked at the readings that projected from his gauntlet, the ones that Coran wouldn’t describe to their entirety earlier. Much to his relief, he was sure that Lance was going to be able to hold on until Coran and Hunk got back. The only downside was that there really wasn’t anything he could do for him in the meantime outside of carefully removing the little crystal shards and cover the bleeding with that cream in their utility belts that temporarily stopped it.

It was actually really unsettling to see Lance so  _ still _ . It was wrong. “Hang on, buddy. Help is on the way.” After that, all he could do was sit and wait. For what, Shiro wasn’t sure.

It was always strange to be in a place entirely without power. He hadn’t realized just how much background noise there was in the castle, since he normally considered it so quiet.

A sudden burst of squeaks caught his attention, the mice running into the room and pointing wildly. He didn’t need a psychic link to understand what they were saying.

Shiro took a deep breath as he stood up. He nodded at the mice. “Hide.” They squeaked and ran off. He cast a glance back towards Lance. Shiro didn’t want to leave him alone but he knew that he had no choice.

So he steeled himself and ran towards the entrance of the castle. How was it that it seemed to take forever to get to the lions, but the front door seemed  _ far _ too close to the bridge for comfort. Where the  _ hell _ was Pidge? He knew she had a foot and a half out of the door already, but he could really use her help at least to keep an eye on Lance.

He rounded the corner to the long corridor that led to outside, but immediately had to duck. He curled into a roll as he avoided the surprise attack.

His arm started to glow as he activated it and swung around, another arm meeting his own. Focusing on the figure beyond the arm, Shiro gritted his teeth together as he realized who it was. “Sendak!”

"I see you spent some time with the Druids,” Sendak said without an ounce of strain in his voice. “They do love to experiment. Too bad you didn't get the latest model."

It was only then that Shiro realized the arm was hovering in the air, not actually attached to the Galra’s body. The split second of distraction proved to be a mistake. Something slammed into the back of Shiro’s head, sending him to the ground with a thud.

His vision blurred as he tried to stay conscious, but he couldn’t fight it. Before he blacked out, Shiro noticed two things. He heard Sendak claim that Voltron was their’s now, but more importantly, he saw white and green armour peeking around a corner, completely unnoticed.

Maybe they weren’t down and out just yet.

…

The Arusian village was of fire, because of course it was. It  _ had _ to be fire. Keith knew logically that he would have to face his fear time and time again for the mission, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

Something was admittedly  _ odd _ about these fires though. The Arusian King was  _ screaming _ at them to save them from the attackers, but Keith didn’t actually see anything or anyone. In fact, the flames appeared to be spread out almost evenly.

“There!” the King yelled, pointing to a solitary shadow just beyond the flames that they were working to put out just like they had their own sacrificial fire earlier. It  _ looked _ like a Galra sentry, but something about this really wasn’t sitting right to Keith. He’d faced these things before and they were relentless when it came to shooting, so why was it just standing there.

“I’ll go in for a closer look,” he told Allura. “Stay here with them.”

“Keith!”

He rushed forward, glad that his suit was protecting him from the heat and smell of the fire so that he could at least ignore it for a little while longer. He slashed at the sentry, and it crumbled to the ground. A gentle breeze probably could have knocked it over too. 

Then the  _ horrible _ truth hit him hard and he turned to run back to Allura. “They tricked us! It’s a diversion!”

As he reached her, Keith realized that Allura wasn’t paying attention to him though. She was staring at the castle with wide eyes. After a moment, she looked at him and said, “We need to get back,  _ now _ !” She started running, and Keith didn’t hesitate for a moment to fall in step with her. “The mice say Sendak’s in the castle!”

Keith’s heart leapt into his throat. The castle had no power, no defenses, and Lance was injured badly. God, what was Sendak going to do to him? What was he going to do to Shiro?

Horror rose up within Keith as he saw the castle’s barrier start forming, a familiar purple glow instead of cyan. He and Allura were both running as fast as they possibly could, but they weren’t fast enough. They were only a couple meters away when the barrier sealed itself against the ground.

“No!” Keith raged, his heart pounding in his ears as his vision narrowed to only the stupid barrier in front of him. His bayard appeared in his hand, shifting into his normal rapier-like sword, and he lashed out, slamming it into the shield. It bounced off, and caused his arm to jerk back a little too much, but the twinge of pain didn’t stop him from hitting it again and again until the bayard fell to the ground and he hit it with his hand instead.

“—Eith! Stop!” The sound around him suddenly came back as a pair of arms wrapped around him and jerked him back with surprising force. He struggled for a second until he recognized Allura’s hands. “You’re going to hurt yourself!”

She dragged him back a few paces before dropping him unceremoniously to the ground. She flopped down beside him, hopelessly looking up at the barrier that would normally keep them safe in the castle, but was now keeping them out.

Keith groaned, his hands digging into the dirt in front of him. “How? How could they start the castle? We destroyed Sendak’s ship!”

“I don’t…” Allura trailed off, her face twisting into one of pure horror. “No. Oh no. Oh my ancients, how could I be so stupid?” Keith’s mouth dropped open with surprise when she fisted her white hair and  _ screamed _ in pure frustration.

“Allura?” he asked, taken back.

“We never found the power source of Sendak’s ship!” Allura said roughly, head snapping up to stare at him, eyes shining with tears. “I was so focused on trying to get you all to form Voltron in the most ridiculous ways possible that I never even thought…and I almost hurt the Arusians by firing on you and I—I didn’t want to let their sacrifices be for nothing but now it is!” She shook her head violently. “Sendak’s ship was probably powered by a crystal too, and he probably managed to salvage it before we could get to it.”

Keith’s stomach dropped. They hadn’t had eyes on the ship at all when they were trying to form Voltron again and working on their bonds. Clearly Sendak survived, and that would have been plenty of time to get important things from parts of the wreck.

Allura was losing it. Her fierce, calm exterior cracking into pieces under the weight of her perceived failure. There was one thing Keith knew though. Failure only happens when you weren’t willing to fight anymore.

“Snap out of it!” She once again looked up at him, this time with wide eyes. Maybe he should have been a bit more sensitive but, well, Keith actually had no excuse. He was just bad at this. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know!” Allura cried out. “With a crystal strong enough to put this barrier in place, they’ll be able to fly it once they get the systems online if we don’t stop them!”

Something wasn’t sitting right with Keith. Altean tech was very different from the tech the Galra seemed to have on their ships, and Altea itself was destroyed 5,000 years ago. How did  _ Sendak _ know how Altean ships worked? No, he needed to focus. That might be important later, but not right now. “How? How do we stop them, Allura?”

His answer didn’t come from the Princess though. Instead, it came from the comms in his helmet. “Keith, can you hear me?”

“Pidge!” Relief washed over Keith. “Where are you?”

“I’m inside the castle,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Sendak has taken over and he's preparing for launch. He's got Lance and Shiro."

Keith desperately wanted to ask how they were, but that wasn’t going to help them right now. No, they needed to stay focused. Judging from how quiet she was talking, Pidge was likely trying to hide, and he didn’t want to ask a billion questions for her to answer.

“Pidge, listen,” Allura spoke up, her earrings glowing slightly. Oh, those strange floating things weren’t just earrings, were they? They were acting as communicators. That was helpful. “We don’t have much time before liftoff if they started the launch sequence.”

“What do I have to do?”

The Princess was once again poised and focused, though now Keith realized that this was very clearly just a mask she put forward, the remnants of her breakdown remaining in her red-rimmed eyes and mussed up hair. "You have to get down to the main engine control panel and disconnect the primary turbine from the central energy chamber. If you can do that, Sendak will have to reset the whole system. That might give us enough time to find a way to stop them."

Pidge muttered something too quietly for either one of them to hear, but then said, “Got it. I’ll get in contact again soon.” She didn’t say anything else after that.

Allura’s shoulders slumped again and she looked at the barrier hatefully. “And now, we wait.”

Yeah, Keith wasn’t exactly great at that. Already, his fingers were twitching at the ground that he dug up earlier. He paused, staring at it for a moment before looking back at her, “Can we tunnel underneath it?”

Allura’s head snapped around to him quickly, her eyebrows rising up. “Excuse me?”

Keith motioned towards the ground. “Can we make a hole to go underneath the dome?”

She followed his gaze, brows now furrowing as she narrowed her eyes. Keith watched her bite her lip before she slowly said, “Well, it goes all the way around a castle like a sphere when it’s in space, but you know…I have no idea. Quintessence can go through anything, but it  _ does  _ have a light and plasma component to it as well, and it  _ could _ stop at the ground.”

“So, if we left some dirt up there and made a tunnel below it, we might be able to get through?”

Allura stared at him intensely, and in that moment, Keith felt like they were on the exact same wavelength.

At the same time, they both got up and rushed back towards the Arusian village.

…

It took every ounce of control that Hunk had to  _ not _ ask Coran ‘are we there yet’ every ten minutes. They were moving  _ much _ faster than any human-made spacecraft could possibly hope to, but at the same time, they weren’t moving fast enough.

Hunk forced himself to breathe in deeply, hold for seven seconds, and slowly exhale. He could do this. He had to stay calm, because if he freaked out now, Coran would have to stop to calm him down since he needed his help, and they couldn’t do that. Lance needed them.

Honestly, the entire situation didn’t quite feel real. It was like listening to someone talk from underwater, or like time slowed down just a millisecond, where it was enough to know that something was wrong but you weren’t able to pinpoint what it was. Yeah, they fought inside giant robots, and apparently when the robots got hit, they could feel a small measure of discomfort (stemming from the bonds to them, according to Allura), but none of them had been directly hurt.

One minute, Hunk thought that he was actually going to get to go home again. That he would be able to go back to his home in Samoa and tell Tinā and Tamā about everything that happened. Talia and Eli would hang onto his every word in awe, they always did. Hunk loved his younger siblings to pieces, because they seemed to think that he was one of the coolest people around, and he never felt like that with anyone else. Aleki would scoff and tease him. Sam would laugh happily. Or he hoped she would. She’d been awfully down about her divorce. That wasn’t the point. The point was that one minute he was imagining what he was going to tell his family when he finally got him, and the next, his best friend was laid up on the floor, unconscious, bleeding, and injured  _ so _ badly.

Hunk bit his lip as his thoughts overtook him. What were the lions thinking? What was the Princess thinking? They were only  _ kids _ . They shouldn’t be fighting evil aliens that ruled the universe. Surely if they were going to attack Earth, they would have done it by that point. It’d been 5,000 years. Allura and Coran could come back with them, and they could be safe on Earth.

Sure, despite being his best friend, Lance wasn’t exactly a  _ fantastic _ friend. Hunk often felt bullied and belittled by him, but he knew it wasn’t on purpose. He knew Lance cared a lot. He was the kind of guy who would ignore Hunk’s pleading to  _ please stop jerking the ship like that Lance it’s making me sick _ , but if someone else  _ dared _ do that to Hunk, Lance would be the first to get in their face. It was like having an extra sibling.

An extra sibling who was also a complete and utter  _ dumbass _ , throwing himself in front of an explosion. That didn’t mean Hunk wanted him  _ hurt _ . If anything, he wanted to wrap him up in bubble wrap and take him home too.

“Don’t get lost in your head,” Coran said suddenly, tearing Hunk out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” Hunk stared at him with wide eyes.

“I can tell you’re worried,” the Altean said, keeping his eyes fixed in front of them. “It’s understandable. Young Lance is strong, and will be able to hold on for us to get back.”

That wasn’t at all comforting. “He’s really hurt, isn’t he?” Did that come out as a whimper? Probably, but Hunk didn’t care. It was a whimpering kind of moment.

“Yes,” Coran admitted, periwinkle eyes turning towards Hunk. “That’s why we must remain on-task to return as quickly as possible. Can you do that?”

_ “Hi! My name’s Lance! You must be my roommate! Henry was it?” 13-year-old Lance said, sticking his hand out. His side of the room was already filled with his stuff. _

_ Hunk shifted shyly and shook his head. “Uh…Henare, actually. But uh, yeah, Henry’s fine! It’s fine!” He felt like he was going to puke. He didn’t want to make a bad impression on his roommate, and correcting him certainly wasn’t a good thing. _

_ The other boy scrunched up his nose. “Why would I call you something that’s not your name? I can remember Henare! Unless you got a nickname or something? I don’t. I just go by Lance. My full name is Lance Charles McClain-Rivera! I know, weird name for a Cuban boy from Florida, right? Can’t help my Grandpa though! He came from Scotland to Cuba! If I’m talking too much just tell me. My brothers and sisters say I talk too much. I have two of each so you gotta talk a lot, you know? Especially when you’re the youngest!” _

_ Hunk blinked at the onslaught of chatter, but perked up a little bit. “I have two brothers and two sisters too, but I’m in the middle.” He looked at him almost shyly. “But everyone calls me Hunk.” A few people made fun of the nickname before, but it was his and he wanted to go by that name. _

_ “Hunk, huh? Okay!” Lance smiled at him warmly. “I have a feeling we’re going to be great friends! Want me to help you with your stuff?” _

_ No one had ever told Hunk that they thought they’d be good friends before. He made something warm bloom in his chest. “Okay.” _

Hunk took a deep, shuddering breath. It didn’t matter how anxious he felt in the end, what mattered was that  _ Lance _ needed him. They could get away from this mess afterwards, but for now, he’d do what he could.

“I can do this,” he assured Coran. He perked up a bit when he saw something growling larger. It was certainly a strange-looking planet that defied everything he knew about planets. They were all supposed to be round due to gravity amongst many other reasons, and while this one seemed to have a greenish-tinted atmosphere with clouds, it looked like there were  _ mountains _ peeking out of the top of the atmosphere, making the planet look almost spiky. What the  _ heck _ ?

He had a feeling he was going to stumble upon a lot of things that didn’t fit into the human definition of how the universe should work.

“Is that the Balmera planet with the crystals?” he asked. “Why does it have mountains outside the atmosphere?”

“It’s not a planet,” Coran corrected him. “Balmera are ancient animals. Petrified, but still alive.”

“ _ What _ ?” That didn’t make sense  _ at all _ . How could an animal be alive in the middle of space? Petrified but alive? What did they look like if they  _ weren’t _ petrified? How did they make an atmosphere? Most importantly…“How do we get crystals from a giant living space-monster? It’s stomach?"

“You’re thinking of a Weblum. Nasty, wonderful creatures, Weblums,” Coran said as if talking about something fondly. “A Balmera’s body naturally creates the crystals that help power many Altean ships. I often accompanied my grandfather to visit these majestic creatures when he was building the Castle of Lions. I'll never forget the first time I saw the sparkling surface of a Balmera. You're in for quite a treat!”

They got closer and closer, but something wasn’t sitting right to Hunk at all. Why did the planet look almost a sickly green if it was supposed to be sparkling?

They very quickly found the answer for that. The surface of the Balmera was entirely stripped of crystals, the biggest open-pit mine that Hunk had ever seen stretching across the surface like a gaping wound. The purple glow of all the mining equipment as well as the buildings around the edges were enough to tell Hunk who was at fault for this.

“Oh no,” Coran breathed out. “Oh  _ no _ ! This is horrifying! The Galra are  _ killing _ the Balmera!”

Oh god, this was a living creature, wasn’t it? They’d been  _ digging _ into a living creature. Hunk had to start counting backwards from ten to keep himself from puking.

"Hailing unidentified craft. State your ship ID, entry code, and landing destination." Neither of them noticed the fighter jet that flew up above them. Hunk slumped down in the seat a bit, hoping none of the pilots could see his distinctive armour. Then again, it had been 5,000 years and if he knew anything about history (which he did, he was fascinated by the histories of different cultures), it was that the victors were the ones who  _ wrote _ popular history, often wiping the losers from existence. He’d be surprised if anyone knew anything about Voltron or Alteans at all.

There was something more important to think about right now though. He looked back to Coran. “What do we do?”

“Just stay calm,” Coran said, an encouraging smile on his face.

Hunk relaxed just slightly. Coran had been around for a while, right? And he’d been an advisor to a King! He could trust him to know what to do.

"We don't really need to land. Uh, we're just looking around, if that's okay."

Hunk’s head snapped up. What the  _ heck _ ? How was that a good idea?

Apparently, the Galra thought it was just as ridiculous, because it took them a moment to radio back. "Unidentified craft, land immediately and prepare to be boarded."   


“Okay,” Coran said with a nod. “Uh, thank you. See you down below.” He turned off the comms, and before Hunk could say anything, they launched backwards.

He gripped his seat as Coran flew the pod wildly, twisting and turning around and around as the lethal light of lasers launched by them. This was almost as bad as Lance’s flying.  _ Almost _ . It was still enough to have Hunk screaming in horror. Why did this pod not have  _ seatbelts _ ? Then again the lions didn’t have seatbelts either, and he always stayed in his seat there. How did that work again?

He’d have to ask Yellow later.

“Hang on!” Coran cried out, and they went into a steep dive down into the hole in the ground, not bothering to slow down.

“Coran!” Hunk screamed as they flew into the Balmera, panic rushing through him. It took a moment for him to realize that  _ no one _ was following them, and he calmed down a little bit.

Instead, he looked around curiously, the lights of their pod showing that everything around him indeed looked like rock and minerals, not organs or anything like that. Alien creatures were  _ amazing _ . However, there was something else that bothered him, given just how fast they were moving. “How deep is this thing?”

Before Coran could answer, the headlights of the pod illuminated a massive series of metal rods and beams that criss-crossed from one side of the hole to the other.

Horror laced through Hunk as he realized that they were  _ going too fast _ to stop or maneuver around in the tight space.

Not that Coran didn’t try. He managed to swing the pod around as best as he could, though one of the engines crashed into it, sparking and sending flames up into the air as they spiralled out of control.

“Come on, come on!” Coran cried out as he tried to even out the pod. Hunk held onto the edge of the seat, pressing his back against it as he cried out in alarm.

Somehow, by some miracle, Coran managed to straighten out the pod just before they crashed nose-first into the bottom of the pit. Instead, they skidded across the floor, slowing down a little bit.

The last thing Hunk saw was the wall of the pit, followed by an ear-piercing, shuddering  _ bang _ , and then everything went black.

…

Pidge’s bayard was a peculiar thing. It wasn’t anything she’d seen before in the way that Keith’s was a rapier, Lance’s was a blaster, and Hunk’s was a hand cannon. Her’s had a taser component to it, as well as a grappling hook of sorts. Honestly, she kind of loved it. It was helpful for so many things.

Apparently she could add forcing stubborn Altean doors open to that list. Seriously, maybe Keith had the right idea that a place like this should have  _ backups _ for when their primary power supply got destroyed. Any good hospital or organization had backup generators!

With a grunt, Pidge finally got the door to the elevator open enough to squeeze herself and Rover inside. At least she knew she wasn’t alone with the little drone at her side.

He beeped at her as he hovered over the deep elevator shaft. She glanced down it, still propping the door open with her leg, a bit of nervousness welling up within her. She wasn’t afraid of heights, but that was a long drop.

No, now wasn’t the time to be afraid. Now was the time to be brave. She couldn’t even dream of going to find her father and Matt if she left when everyone else was in such bad shape. She’d just lose two more people to the Galra. Shiro had been a bit of a blessing over the last few days, and Lance annoyed the hell out of her, but that didn’t mean she wanted anything to happen to him!

“Let’s go, Rover,” she said to her little companion as she fired up her jetpack and launched herself to the other side of the shaft, the door closing behind it. The purple light that lit up the castle was completely unnerving, and she didn’t like it  _ at all _ . She jumped back and forth from side to side as she descended into the castle.

Seriously, they needed more stairs in the castle, because they couldn’t just rely on elevators. Didn’t Alteans know that those were the last places you were supposed to go in emergencies? Honestly, a series of those ridiculous zip lines would have been better than no alternative route.

After what seemed like forever, she got to the door that she needed, once again using her bayard to pry it open.

Pidge flinched at the vibrant light that pierced the darkness as she opened the door to the Central Energy Chamber. Wow, she could  _ tell _ why that was the name of this place with the giant, glowing sphere in the middle

Shaking that thought aside, she spoke into her comms. “I’m here, Allura. I think they’ve started the activation sequence.” It was the only reason she could think that everything would be humming to life the way it was. 

The comms came to life as Allura grunted and said, “You’ll have to hurry. Cross the catwalk to the main column in the center."

Why did she sound so out of breath? Whatever, there was no time to focus on that. Instead, she ran across the catwalk, not bothering to look down. Though it did prompt the question about  _ why _ it was set up with such a massive drop. If the castle was a ship, couldn’t its movement cause someone to fall and die or something? Seemed like a bit of an oversight to her.

“Okay,” she said once she reached the console on the other side, her eyes flitting across the surface. The screen was glowing with an eerie red that wasn’t much better than the purple around the rest of the castle.

“Now, open the hatch,” Allura instructed. Pidge knelt down in front of the console, opening the hatch that was there just as she was told to. There were eight cylinders with levers and symbols on them, the cyan glow coming from them almost comforting. Except, there was one major problem that she noticed as Allura said, “Enter the following sequence...ow! Keith!"

“Sorry,” Keith grunted over the comms before going back to whatever it was that he was apparently doing. It sounded like metal hitting the ground, but Pidge actually didn’t want to know.

She was glad for the distraction though. “Wait, wait, wait, wait! Which one is it? All the labels are in Altean!" Why wasn’t her helmet translating this? Well, it was  _ trying _ too, but apparently these symbols had no English equivalent.

Everything around her suddenly started to shake, and Pidge very quickly became aware of why  _ this _ room in particular was so big, and why the platform was hovering really high up. Streaks of violet energy came through conductors all around the room, slamming into the glowing sphere in the middle. It grew larger, its own energy going wild. 

A wave of urgency overtook Pidge. "I can't tell which one it is! Allura? Allura?” She only got a garbled reply and was left with silence. The energy must have been interfering with the comms. “Uh..."

Pidge stood up and looked at the swirling sphere before her eyes trailed down to the console. She had no idea what to do, and didn’t have time to figure out what everything meant. The physical objects were in Altean, and the readout on the screen was Galra.

Her heart squeezed as the reality of the situation hit her. The Galra, the people that took her family from here, were actually going to win again, weren’t they?

…

Allura screamed with surprise as Keith’s hand suddenly wrapped around her ankle, and she was yanked back out of the tunnel that they had been trying to dig. It was for the best if the shaking ground had anything to say about it, but would it have hurt him to warn her first?

Now wasn’t the time to be annoyed at something so petty though. She dropped the shovel that the Arusians had given her to the ground as she tried to steady herself. "I've lost connection with Pidge!”

“I can’t get her either,” he replied. Dust and debris flew into the air, and he tugged her back, putting his arm up so that his shield appeared to cover them both. It was much appreciated since she didn’t have her helmet on her.

Horror gripped Allura as she realized what was happening. “It’s taking off!”

“Come on, Pidge!” Keith cried out, though they both knew that she wouldn’t hear it. “Come on!”

…

“Oh god, oh god, oh dear sweet Nonna, what do I do?” Pidgem uttered wildly as her eyes darted from one thing to the next. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t.

She knelt back down to look into the hatch again. If they went into space, if the ship was powered up,  _ maybe  _ she could get to Green. Maybe she could let her rip the castle apart like Keith suggested earlier. She couldn’t leave Shiro or Lance though, and if they didn’t have their helmets on properly, anything she did involving pressure could kill them.

Shiro was going to end up in whatever arena he’d been in before.

Lance was going to  _ die _ .

Her eyes darted from the Altean symbols to her bayard as it formed in her hand.

She couldn’t let this happen.

“Whatever!” She slammed the glowing end of her bayard into the cylinders. A scream escaped her lips as energy coursed through her body, throwing her backwards onto the catwalk. She skidded to a stop, her bayard sliding a few feet away from her.

The entire ship shook again, and with a groan, Pidge managed to force her eyes open. The pulsing streams of energy slowly came to a stop, the glowing sphere becoming small and still again as all movement ceased around her.

For a brief moment, everything was completely silent outside of her ragged breathing. It was only when Rover hovered over her, beeping in worry, that Pidge realized what just happened.

A bark of a laugh escaped her lips as she pushed herself up, relief and pride rushing through her. She did it! They weren’t going to be able to launch the castle again with that kind of damage!

Rover beeped again, bringing her back to reality. Now wasn’t the time to celebrate. Just because it  _ looked _ broken didn’t mean that an advanced alien race like the Galra couldn't figure out how to fix it. She needed a permanent solution. She needed to get those barriers down so that Allura and Keith could get inside. God, she wanted to see what the two of them in all of their livid glory could do to the Galra.

With that in mind, Pidge forced herself to her feet, grabbing her bayard and running towards the door with Rover following her.

They were going to be okay. She was going to make sure of it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is doing okay! I'm back to my part-time job (not the job I want to be working, because of course not), which should be interesting. 
> 
> Thank you so much for all the support for this story so far! I admit I haven't been writing it as quickly as I would have liked, so I'll have to get back on that. Let me know what you think, and always remember I play with unreliable narrators, so even if a character thinks or feels something in regards to another, it may not be completely accurate. Also, please don't be too harsh on a single character for their actions. Gotta have places for them to learn and grow, right?
> 
> Guess what's coming in the next chapter, which will be out on (or around) the summer solstice? I'm excited, are you? 
> 
> I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to leave a comment! I've been working on this for a while now so it's always nice to hear what everyone thinks!


	8. ...And Conquer

_ “I can’t do this!” Shiro said with a groan as he glared at the textbook in front of him. “What’s the point of finishing this? And aren’t we supposed to be doing something, I dunno, fun? Isn’t that what this whole school-mentor thing is for?” _

_ The man in front of him chuckled, grey eyes flashing with genuine amusement. “Your teacher’s been telling me that your grades are slipping a bit, and suggested I help you out some. Just ‘cause you got into the Garrison already doesn’t mean you can coast now.” _

_ The thirteen-year-old groaned and then glared at the book in front of him. Didn’t he get that his  _ **_mom_ ** _ was supposed to be the one to help him with his homework? That she was the one that put through his applications for the Garrison, so without her there to see it, there was really no point? Didn’t he understand how hard it was? _

_ “I give up,” Shiro groaned again, trying to keep it together, because he wasn’t a little kid anymore. “I failed my last test anyway, so what’s the point?” _

_ “Hey, no, you don’t ever give up, you hear me? I didn’t know your mother, but from the sound of it, she was a first-class lady that would want you to keep pushing forward. Sometimes all the bad things in the world can happen, but you don’t give up. I tell that to my boy, and he’s a lot younger than you. Understand?” _

_ He looked up at the man, a sigh escaping his lips. He understood that, but still, he didn’t exactly believe it. He wasn’t going to say that though. Instead, Shiro smiled and said, “Sure. Thanks, Hisashi.” _

…

The high-pitched buzzing noise that rang through his ears was the first thing Shiro noticed with his return to consciousness. The second was the sharp pain in his head. The third was the memories of what happened to get him in this state in the first place.

He could hear movement around him, and slowly, Shiro opened his eyes just enough to look around, but not enough for anyone to notice him.

There were a couple sentries in the room, but not many. If he was in better condition, he’d probably be able to take them all out on his own. Shiro wasn’t about to jump up though, not without assessing the situation.

His arms were twisted behind him painfully, and normally he’d think to use the prosthetic to break out of the cuffs, but the burning, stiff ache from his flesh arm and his chest, told him that it’d be a bad idea. He must have been in this position for a long time if it hurt this badly.

Shiro wasn’t  _ exactly _ used to the pain anymore. The Galra must have given him some form of alien steroids for him to gain so much muscle mass and to temper the aches and stiffness of his muscles. It was funny, really, because he should have been slowly  _ losing _ muscle mass, not  _ gaining _ it.

The pain, when he focused on it, was actually pretty awful. He’d grit his teeth and get through it though. He was the head of Voltron, the leader. He had to keep it together. One thing he knew for certain was that he was in no condition to fight, so leaping up and attacking Sendak, while so  _ very _ tempting, was a bad idea.

“Haxus! I want whoever's in this ship found and terminated!" Sendak roared out, catching Shiro’s attention. His heart leapt a bit as his mind rushed over who he could be talking about. The mice were still on the ship, but he doubted it was them.

There was only one other Galra in the room and a couple of sentries, but that was it. Shiro got the feeling that this was all that was left of Sendak’s forces, which was terrifying in a sense.

"Commander Sendak, I've intercepted a transmission generating from somewhere inside,” Haxus said back to him.

Shiro stopped breathing for a moment as he heard Allura’s voice suddenly echo through the room. "There's not much time before they get the ship running again. You must shut off the particle barrier so we can get in." She sounded out of breath and stressed.

“Tell me what to do,” came Pidge’s reply, and Shiro realized with horror that  _ she _ was likely the one that Sendak and Haxus were looking for.

"The particle barrier generator is beneath the main hull."

“She's telling the intruder how to take down our defenses,” Haxus reported back, though he really didn’t need to.

Sendak didn’t seem worried about this at all. In fact, Shiro could see a smirk rising up on his face. "Yes, but she's also giving away his location.” He turned to the couple sentries that were there. “Find that room. Kill the Paladin!" They quickly ran out.

He then turned his attention back to Haxus. “Repair the engine. Emperor Zarkon has commanded us to bring him Voltron. This ship will rise before day's end."

“And if the Champion wakes up?”

“He’ll behave. He wouldn’t want to be the reason the Blue Paladin dies.”

Shiro stopped listening to them, eyes darting around the room until they fell on Lance’s still form. He wasn’t too far away, but his skin was pale and he was breathing oddly. It didn’t sit well with him at all.

He stayed silent, not wanting Sendak to know he was already awake. This situation seemed almost hopeless, but now wasn’t the time to give up.

They were going to get out of this mess, they had to.

…

Hunk came to with a start. He looked around, trying to figure out exactly what it was that woke him up. It took him far too long to realize that it was a war-cry from Coran, followed by flailing similar to when they let him out of the sleep chamber.

“Coran! It’s me!” Hunk grabbed his arms, and the Altean blinked at him before calming down.

"Oh,” Coran said almost sheepishly. “I apologize. I was a bit startled.”

“What happened?” Hunk asked as he looked around. If it wasn’t for the lights on his armour, it probably would have been pitch black. Why was it so dark?

Then he remembered everything, and a wave of nausea rolled over him. They had  _ crashed _ in the bottom of the Balmera. Who knew how long ago that was? Sure, the Galra hadn’t found them, so it might not have been that long, but what if it was?

What if they  _ already _ ran out of time and Lance was  _ dead _ ?

Hunk didn’t have the time to panic over it like he wanted to. Already on edge in the darkness, he immediately noticed the yellow glow coming from the shadows beside them. He looked around, squeaking when he realized that their pod had  _ opened _ on impact, so they were exposed to anything and everything in the bowels of a petrified, living creature.

“Uh, Coran? What lives down here?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer, his bayard flashed to life in his hands. The glowing yellow eyes, just like Sendak’s, got a little bit closer, prompting him to yell, "Okay, don't come any closer! I don't know how to use this very well." He fumbled with his hand cannon, and realized that his words were painfully true, because he was  _ somehow _ holding it backwards. That would have been bad.

Maybe the figures saw that, because one of them moved a little closer so that Hunk could make out their features in the light of his armour. He blinked, weapon lowering when he saw a strange looking creature with glowing yellow eyes, but one that definitely wasn’t what he thought they were. “Wait a minute. You’re not Galra.”

“Nor are you!” The alien had a feminine voice, though Hunk knew that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

“Wait a tick,” Coran said suddenly, looking at the solid rock above them. “We didn’t fall into this tunnel. How’d we get here?”

“I convinced my brother to help me move you,” the alien admitted.

“We should have left them,” the taller of the two said, his voice deeper and more masculine. “Galra hunt you, and to be found with you means certain death. Shay, they are not our problem. Let us leave them.”

Shay shook her head. “No! As stated before! These many years only Galra have been seen here. I will not turn my back on the skylings."

Hunk  _ immediately _ decided that he liked Shay. Carefully, both him and Coran climbed out of the pod, a quick look at it telling Hunk that the damage to it actually  _ wasn’t _ quite that bad. So he took a moment to turn his attention to the other aliens and said, "The Galra probably would have got us when we were knocked out, so thanks for saving us. I'm Hunk."

“Shay,” she answered, looking down at him curiously. Hunk honestly wasn’t used to people being taller than him (outside of Shiro), so it was kind of nice. She motioned to the taller alien beside her. “This one, my brother, Rax.”

He was glad that his translator was working, and was a bit curious if their way of speaking was very formal, or if it was the tech struggling a little bit. 

A mechanical whirring sound caught their attention, and Rax cried out, “A patrol! Shay, we must take leave.”

“Wait!” Coran approached them, holding both hands out. “Please, we need your help. If the Galra find us, they'll kill us." Hunk shivered at that. The Galra would kill them, wouldn’t they? It was even more a reason to leave and go home.

But, more importantly, if they didn’t get the crystal they came for, if they didn’t fix their pod, who knew what was going to happen to Lance?

“Please,” Hunk said, prompting Shay to look at him. “We came here looking for something to help my friend, and you guys just might be the right people to help us find it.”

…

Altean technology was absolutely amazing, but at the same time, Pidge was kind of disappointed about certain things. Having to run all over the goddamn castle to fix a problem was more than a bit frustrating. In theory, that  _ could _ make it harder to take over the castle, but clearly two Galra and a handful of sentries were good enough, so forget that. Maybe things would have been easier with a full crew—people stationed at different parts of the castle, but they didn’t have that. At best, they had seven able bodies to work around the castle, but only two of them knew what to do with anything, and six of them were currently out of commission.

All they had was her, and Pidge didn’t know what to think of that. If she left only a couple minutes earlier, the castle would have been on its way to Zarkon. Even if she didn’t want to stay, even if she had to leave, she didn’t want anyone else to hurt these people. She  _ did _ care if they were okay or not.

What was the last thing she even said to Lance? She didn’t remember seeing him earlier. Did she want to just remember Allura’s hurt expression, or Keith’s sharp, enraged one? What about Hunk’s terror at the thought of losing his best friend? Or the blank look on Shiro’s face as he was clearly lost in a living nightmare?

As she snuck around the castle to the generator room, Pidge felt like her mind was running in ten different directions at once. She thought about the other Paladins. She thought about her brother and her father, wondering if they had the same expression as Shiro.

She thought of peas.

Pidge came to a stop, Rover almost running into her as she remembered the last meal she had eaten together with her whole family.

_ "Hope you enjoy this home-cooked meal, Matt,” Sam said as he looked to his son. “After our launch to Kerberos tomorrow, we'll be eating freeze-dried peas for the next two months.” He flicked the fresh peas on his plate. _

_ Matt laughed at him, eyes wide and happy as they always were. "Don't lie. I know you love those peas, Dad." _

_ “It's true. Those Garrison chefs really know how to genetically manufacture a delicious vegetable." _

_ “The chefs are the one that manufacture them, huh?” Colleen asked, eyebrow raising up. _ __

_ “Well, they do add spices to the lovely things you grow…” _

_ “We’re white, since when do we use spices?” Matt joked, earning a snort of amusement from Pidge. _

Thinking about them made her eyes water.

She finally got to the generator room, a room lined with glowing energy arcs. She hurried to the console on the end with Rover hovering behind her. “Allura, I’m here. Can you hear me?” Her eyes darted around the room, suddenly feeling  _ so _ small. “This technology is so advanced. I don’t know if I’ll be able to figure it out.”

“Yes, you can,” Allura said firmly, leaving no room for argument. “You’ve altered that little Galra drone. You’ve figured out how to alter the pods from the sounds of it. You’re honestly one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. I know you can do this. The lives of your fellow Paladins are depending on it. They— _ we _ all need you, Pidge.”

_ "I wish I was going up with you guys." _

_ "Just you wait, kiddo. Something tells me that you're going to have your own crew someday. And you're going to fly with them to worlds so far away, we can't even imagine. I bet my bottom dollar you're going to be part of something that makes the whole universe sit up and take notice." _

Her father always believed in her. No, not just her father, her entire family. They all believed in one another.

**_“The Galaxy Garrison mission to the distant moon of Kerberos is missing…”_ **

_ “Katie Anne Holt, what do you think you’re doing?” _

**_“…and all crew members are believed to be dead…”_ **

_ “They kicked me out the last time I tried to go in! They’re lying mom! I saw the feeds from the probes! We both know they are! I know it could get me arrested, but there was no proof of a crash! I can find information on dad and Matt. I know I can. I just have to have a reason to be at the Garrison without drawing attention to myself." _ _   
_

**_“…The Galaxy Garrison has said the crash was presumably caused by pilot error…”_ **

_ “Absolutely not!” Colleen Holt’s eyes flashed. “Not without the proper fake background, documentation, and an untraceable email address to keep me up to speed.” _

**_“…It is, indeed, a sad day for all humanity."_ **

The other Paladins  _ needed _ her. She had the chance to be part of something amazing and great, and her family would  _ never _ forgive her if she let them down. She could picture the  _ horrified _ looks on their faces if they found out that she could have been a part of something to stop the creatures that were taking over the universe, but she walked away.

Pidge squeezed her eyes shut. “Okay. Talk me through it, Allura.”

She grunted. “Shutting down the barrier from this room can be dangerous. Remember, it’s also a weapon,  _ one that could cut you in half if you’re not careful, Keith _ .” Pidge blinked and Allura cleared her throat. “I apologize. Stay away from the energy arcs.”

She side-eyed the arcs of energy. “Don't touch the giant lightning bolts. Got it."

"Now, what I'm going to need you to do is—"

A yelp escaped Pidge’s lips as Rover suddenly shoved her to the side. A streak of purple flew right where her head had been seconds before.

She twisted around to see one of Sendak’s sentries firing at her. Pidge scrambled out of the way, hiding behind the console as blasts of energy flew overhead.

…

“Pidge? Hello?” Allura asked, frustration welling up within her. She knelt outside of a tunnel, pulling out the dirt that Keith tossed back at her. She was stressed and nervous, because on one hand she was sure that they were making good progress, but on the other, if Keith came up in the wrong spot, or their tunnel collapsed, the barrier could come down on him. She shuddered at the thought of what would happen if that occurred.

Now she couldn’t get a hold of Pidge either, and she had no idea what was going on.

“Everything okay?” Keith asked from in the tunnel. He turned off communications from the castle so that nothing would startle him as he used his bayard to cut chunks out of the mercifully soft earth (though that softness might work against them if the tunnel crumbled).

“I’ve lost Pidge again,” she replied, more than a bit frustrated. “It sounded like someone was firing on her.” Allura couldn’t believe it came to this. She was digging in the ground with her Red Paladin, trying desperately to get back into  _ her _ castle that the Galra so easily took over.

Keith practically growled from inside the tunnel they made. Allura continued to help remove the dirt that he kicked back to her, and wished that there was  _ something _ ,  _ anything _ that she could do to help someone.

She gasped as an idea hit her, and felt like an idiot that she hadn’t thought of it sooner. “The mice!”

She closed her eyes and focused on the four furry little creatures, some of the last remnants of Altea. Their quintessence was small, but bright, probably a side effect from being in the sleep pod with her for 5,000 years. “Friends, I need your help.” She could tell that they were hiding somewhere, out of sight but close to the Paladins. They sent thoughts of Sendak sending sentries to hunt down Pidge, the other Galra going to fix the castle.

She bristled when she realized that there were only  _ two _ Galra in the ship. Her castle, which was second to none for  _ decaphobes _ after its creation, was infiltrated and taken over by  _ two _ Galra.

Allura muffled her scream of frustration, but anyone nearby could probably hear her. At the exact same time, the dirt on the other side of the particle barrier shifted, a red and white rapier coming up from the ground. It shifted, wiggled and moved, creating a big enough opening for two hands to do the rest. Keith hauled himself up, and looked back at her. “Go quick, I don’t know how stable it is.”

Was she terrified that the tunnel would collapse, causing the barrier to descend down farther and sever her in two? Absolutely. That was why Allura practically dove into the hole that she and Keith (mostly Keith) had tunneled, not hesitating or wasting a moment lingering or second-guessing herself.

Keith waited for her at the other end. He grabbed her arms, and dragged her out the rest of the way. A split second later, the tunnel collapsed just as she feared it would.

“Well that was terrifying,” Allura muttered, her heart pounding in her chest. If Keith wouldn’t have pulled her through, she likely would have lost a leg. She looked up at the castle, pushing her fears aside for now. There was time for that later when she was in her room away from everyone else.

“They don’t know we got back in,” Keith pointed out to her as he turned on communications again, dark eyes looking over the features of the castle.

“Let’s keep it that way, follow me,” Allura said. She stood up, darting towards the castle.

“You know a way in without them detecting us?” he asked her, not with doubt, but definitely curious.

Allura waved him off. “Of course I do. It’s my castle.” Keith didn’t question her after that, following her back into the castle.

…

“Are you  _ kidding _ me?” Pidge asked, turning her eyes to Rover in disbelief. The map that she was projecting was pretty clear about where she was, and it was also pretty clear about the fact that the emergency exit was two stories  _ up _ . What the heck was wrong with Alteans and not having backup plans that were actually viable? Did they think that they  _ wouldn’t _ run into problems? Did they just run forward with the first idea that came to their mind without thinking of the consequences for others and—

Oh. Right.

Pidge shook her head, not needing to think about that right now. There were robots shooting deadly laser beams at her, and though her armour probably  _ could _ withstand the blasts, she didn’t want to take the risk.

“Alright, let’s try this.” It was something she’d been working on, admittedly so that she could throw everyone off if they tried to stop her from leaving. A hologram version of herself appeared, and she hoped against all hope that the sentries wouldn’t be able to detect that it wasn’t actually her.

The hologram started running, distracting the sentries. That was her only goal, but the fact that they  _ shot _ at it and hit the energy arcs, blowing it and one of  _ them _ up, was really just a bonus.

She didn’t take time to focus on that though, summoning her bayard and using the grappling hook function to fling herself up towards the exit.

A scream escaped her lips as shots flew up around her. She stumbled, and nearly slipped back down, but Rover quickly went under her feet, stabilizing her and pushing her up the last couple feet so that she could enter the (ridiculous) emergency exit

"Rover! Nice save, buddy!” She scrambled forward, trying to figure out where it was that she had to go. There weren't a lot of sentries, but they were still annoying. If she wanted to get  _ anything _ done, she’d have to take them out first.

“Alright,” she muttered to herself. “Come and get me.”

…

It never occurred to Hunk that there might actually be native beings that lived on the Balmera, not after Coran described it as a petrified, but still-living organism. As it turned out, the Balmera was teeming with life.

Shay and Rax led them to their family, where they sat around a fire and were offered bowls full of strange, but oddly delicious food. Hunk wasn’t stupid enough to think that the ingredients were anything like Earth ones, but it had been a super long day, and they needed some kind of fuel, so he took a risk in trying it.

Honestly? It was amazing. One of the best things he’d eaten since coming into space (that he himself hadn’t made). They really needed to get going, but he didn’t want to just eat and run. Not after Shay took a risk in helping them. “Thanks for the delicious soup.”

"Grandma's special dish for special visitors. Cave-root for the skin. Cave bugs for the soul,” Shay replied cheerfully.

Hunk grimaced, trying to keep his cool. He should have seen that one coming. Whatever, it wasn’t uncommon to eat bugs on Earth too. He could deal with this. Coran looked like he might be ill though. (Shouldn’t he have expected that though?)   


Coran cleared his throat. “Thank you for the bugs.” He looked a little worse as Shay’s grandmother poured more soup in his bowl.

“How many of you are down here?” Hunk asked curiously. There was really nothing anywhere that indicated there was an intelligent species on the planet outside of the Galra. Maybe there were only a few of them?

Shay’s father answered his question. “There are thousands here on Balmera. We work and live in these mines."

“We harvest the crystals for the Emperor,” Shay added.

It was  _ odd _ to hear someone call Zarkon ‘the Emperor’, though he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. There were many ways to conquer places and people, and instilling Zarkon as the Emperor over  _ everyone _ was the end result.

Zarkon wasn’t any Emperor of his though. “Zarkon. Call him Zarkon. He doesn’t deserve that title. Not from you. Not from anyone.” It was so…sad that he enslaved an entire planet. He voiced that to Coran.

“That is what the Galra do. We are not the first, and we will not be the last. Your planet must be blessed to have been spared so far,” Shay’s father noted. “As for us, the Emperor may rule, but we still have family. That's where true happiness comes from."

Hunk smiled warmly at that thought. It was why he wanted to go home. He missed his family so much, and he belonged back on Earth with them.

He couldn’t help but admire the fact that Shay’s family was still so…positive. Hunk liked to think that his family was a warm, healthy one, but things less severe than this could bring them all down. Sam’s divorce and losing her kids in it were a prime example of that.

Rax broke him out of his thoughts. "The Galra would tear our family asunder if they found these ones! Everyone comes to Balmera and takes, but gives nothing in return!”

He must have looked confused, because Shay spoke up to explain a little further. “In the past, those who took the Balmera's crystals would replenish her with energy. It was an equal exchange. But the Galra only take. It is no wonder we can feel her suffering more and more.” She frowned, shoulders slumping sadly. “They’ll take until she has nothing left to give.”

Hunk’s stomach twisted, and it had nothing to do with the food. The Galra didn’t just take over this planet, these people, they were going to end up completely destroying it. He wished there was something he could do to help. “I’m sorry that we put everyone in this situation, but the faster we get the crystal we need and get out, the faster everyone is out of danger.” He didn’t want to add to the problem, didn’t want to just take something without permission or whatever, but he also knew that they didn’t have much time left. Lance  _ needed _ them.

“We’re looking for a battleship-class crystal,” Coran added. Honestly, that sounded more like something you order from a warehouse, not a naturally occurring thing.

“Those are most rare,” Shay’s father muttered thoughtfully. “Galra soldiers guard them ceaselessly until their harvest.” He shook his head. “Your quest is in vain."

"There is one, found only weeks ago. It is almost excavated,” Shay explained, earning sharp looks from her family members.

"Quiet!” Rax snapped at his sister. “Even if they could steal the crystal from the Galra, battle patrols wait to take down their ship.” He waved his hands towards Hunk and Corna. “These ones have  _ no _ chance of escape, with crystal or without.”

Wow, it sounded like the crystal they needed was one of the most difficult things to get. Except, was it  _ really _ ? The Galra were mining the planet that Yellow was hidden on and that ended up okay. Though he didn’t have Yellow with him right now.

A solid warmth pressed against his mind, almost startling Hunk. Assurance and encouragement surrounded him. Hunk’s breath caught in his throat as he realized it was Yellow. Even from far away, trapped in the castle, Yellow was reaching out to him.

"You may stay here until Balmera gives another crystal. One that is hidden from Galra eyes,” Shay told them.

Except, they couldn’t do that. “We don’t have that kind of time.” He pictured Lance, sprawled on the ground, and he  _ wanted _ to fall into hysterics, but thinking of Lance also gave him something to hold onto. Lance  _ needed _ him. Everyone needed him and Coran to get this crystal back or the castle would never be able to leave Arus. “I have an injured friend who needs to get into a magic healing machine, stat."

“Hunk,” Coran said as he stood up. “You fix the pod. I'm going to do some reconnaissance and see if I can come up with another plan."

He watched Coran walk away and looked down at his slightly-shaking hands. Yellow’s encouragement wrapped around him, and his lips pressed into a straight line. Coran needed him to fix the pod. Lance needed him to get the crystal so he could heal. Hell, everyone needed them to get the crystal.

And the Balmerans. They needed help too. Even if they weren’t here, the Balmera itself was a living creature and needed them.

Now was not the time for worry and fear. Now, he had a job to do, and he  _ wasn’t _ going to let anyone down.

Not this time.

…

_ Her hands were shaking. She glared at her reflection in the mirror, because it was just hair. Hair grew back, and there was nothing wrong with short hair. Lots of women had short hair. _

_ Except, she didn’t actually want short hair. She loved how long hers was. Besides, guys could have long hair too. Heck, some even looked better with it, from an aesthetic perspective. _

_ “What are you doing?” _

_ Her eyes looked up in the mirror, meeting her mother’s. Pidge’s shoulders slumped a bit and she said, “I’m trying to cut my hair short.” _

_ Colleen hummed thoughtfully as she approached, running her fingers through her daughter’s thick hair. Pidge closed her eyes slightly at the feeling. It was nice. “With the way your hair’s textured, if we cut it too short, especially as short as it seems you’re about to do, it’ll flip out exactly like your brother’s did. You’ll look like a Mini-Matt.” _

_ Pidge’s mouth fell open into an O, and her mind instantly went over what else she could do. She could dye her hair, she supposed, but it would fade out. She could get a wig, but that could come off. _

_ Or… _

_ “Good,” she said stubbornly, earning a look of surprise from her mother. “I want Iverson to look me in the eye and know who I am. He’ll know that I know that he knows who I am. He’ll never be able to prove it though.” Before the systems were locked down more (after she hacked them, of course), she found out that Iverson was one of the few that seemed to know what was going on along with some other commanders, and Sanda. She knew that he was a hardass though, and that it would drive him bonkers to know who she was but not be able to prove it. _

_ “If you get caught, that’ll be fraud charges along with espionage,” Colleen warned her daughter, though she honestly didn’t seem that worried about it. Probably because the documents that they were going to get were fool-proof. _

_ Honestly, Pidge was kind of terrified of her mother. She was an absolute force of nature at times. It was amazing and everything Pidge strived to be in life. _

_ “I won’t get caught,” she said, her voice certain. “This is bigger than just Dad and Matt. They’re hiding things and I want to know why.” _

_ Her mother smiled at her proudly. “I know you can do it, Katie.” She held the scissors up to her hair. “Ready?” _

_ Pidge steeled herself. “Yes.” _

_ The scissors snapped shut, and her long hair tumbled to the floor. _

Pidge ran as fast as she could to try and evade the sentries that were likely still on her tail. She could do this. It wouldn’t be easy, but she could get rid of them. She had to.

The first time that she met Hunk and Lance, Lance had been dancing around excitedly, having exclaimed something along the lines of ‘Hasta la later, Keith’ (which was actually really funny to think about now). He was so lively, and Hunk was so warm and friendly.

Now Lance was on a cold floor, injured worse than Coran was willing to actually tell them just to spare them. Hunk was who knows where at this point, but he’d been so serious when leaving. Only a little while before that, both she and Hunk were saying that they wanted to leave.

Yet, Coran needed Hunk to help move the crystal they needed, since Shiro was in no condition to focus on that. They needed  _ her _ to get this castle back up and running properly. If she and Hunk had left, the others would be doomed.

_ “When you’re out in space, nothing is more important than your team. You rely on one another, and you all have a role. Without one of you, everything would fall to pieces. Maybe the ones that are left can pull things together eventually, but it wouldn’t be easy. Your team should be like your family as much as we are,” _ her father once told her.

Her eyes grew watery at that. She didn’t even try to bond with Hunk and Lance at the Garrison, despite how hard Lance clearly tried to include her. She barely bothered trying to bond with the other Paladins now, just biding her time to go and find her father and brother.

God, she was an  _ awful _ teammate, and they  _ needed _ her.

"You know, Rover,” she spoke to the little droid as they hurried forward, “I haven't always been there for my team. But this time I will be. Come on."

Silently, she apologized to her father and Matt. They were going to have to wait a little while longer.

…

_ Hunk blinked his eyes as he stared at the man on the side of the road. He was huddled up with a dog, holding the creature close as if to warm it with his thin jacket, despite the fact that he too was shivering from the cold and it wasn’t exactly a small dog. He watched them from the window of the store he was in, waiting for his brother to finish trying on the suit he needed. _

_ “Tinā,” he spoke to his mother, “why is that man and doggie sitting there?” _

_ She hummed and followed his gaze, a sad expression taking over her features. “He’s homeless, sweetie.” _

_ The young boy squinted in confusion. Homeless? “Some people don’t have homes?” _

_ His mother ran a hand through his short hair. “No, some people don’t. It’s very sad. We’re very lucky.” _

_ “Can’t people with a lot of money help him?” Hunk asked, his eyes almost teary. That man seemed nice, and you could tell he really loved his puppy. _

_ “They could, but most of them won’t.” _

_ That genuinely horrified the boy. He didn’t understand, if someone could help, why wouldn’t they? Were they really that scared to help? Or were they just greedy? _

_ He thought about the five dollars he had in his pocket, money he saved up from doing chores around the house. “Tinā, can I buy him a blanket? I wonder if his puppy has food? Or if he does? Is five dollars enough to buy him some dog food and a sandwich too?” _

_ His mother’s eyes widened slightly with surprise. A smile passed over her features, and she reached out, once again running her hand through his hair. “I’m not sure if it will, but how about I pitch in a bit too?” _

_ Their family didn’t have an excess amount of money. Hunk knew that because his parents tried to explain things like that clearly, so he knew why he couldn’t get all the newest toys that he wanted, but they had enough to help a little bit. _

_ From the way the old, homeless man’s eyes watered when they gave him the food and blankets, Hunk knew that no one else had really been kind to him before, and that just wasn’t right. He was a nice old man who loved his dog, and who told Hunk stories whenever they saw one another from that moment on. _

_ “I wish there was more I could do,” Hunk said to his mother one day. _

_ She smiled at him broadly. “You have a big heart, and you know what’s wrong and right already. That’s how I know you’ll do great things. I’m so proud of you, Henare.” _

It had been a while since Hunk thought about Mr. Garrett, that nice man who was down on his luck and had only the dog that  _ he _ saved from starving on the streets, giving him what he could. Hunk remembered being heartbroken when the old man got really sick and had to go to the hospital. They visited him once, and the only thing that he was worried about was his dog.

Hunk’s family ended up taking in Lucky, and Mr. Garrett said that it was a comfort, that he knew such a kind family would take care of his best friend.

Hunk cried a lot when Mr. Garrett died in the hospital. They ended up keeping Lucky until he passed peacefully in his sleep at the age of 15, and knew that his first owner would have been beyond grateful and proud.

It wasn’t a surprise to him that Mr. Garrett and Lucky were on his mind as Hunk worked on the pod. He thought about them a lot when he saw more injustice in the world. Well, not just the world now.

His helmet translated a few of the schematics, making it easy for him to figure out what was wrong with the pod, and how to fix it. He’d get it up and running sooner rather than later. He just wished it was that easy to fix everything.

"Tell me, what is the sky like?"

He blinked with surprise, looking up at Shay. She was an extremely curious person, but at the same time, was painfully polite, keeping a little bit of distance and staying respectfully quiet for the most part.

Her question caught him completely off-guard, and not just because it broke the silence. “The sky? You’ve seriously never seen the sky before?”

Taking his response to her question as an invitation, Shay carefully climbed up onto the top of the pod. “No. But at night, I sneak up as high as I dare, trying to imagine what it is like.” She looked down at the pod. “Oh, lucky are you to fly in this machine to worlds far from here."

His breath caught in his throat. “It doesn’t have to be like this. You can be free, too."

“Free?” Shay tilted her head. Despite how big and physically imposing she probably could be, he actually found it a bit adorable. It was also alarming that she didn’t know what it meant to be free at all.

Altea was destroyed 5,000 years ago, and it was likely that the Galra Empire had been going strong for just as long. Hunk couldn’t think of an Empire on Earth that lasted the same amount. All it took was a couple generations to completely erase the past. “Yeah, free. It means you can go where you want, be what you want, do what you want. No Galra masters to tell you what to do."

She slowly shook her head. “It makes no sense. The Emperor controls everything."   


Hunk’s breath caught in his throat and it took everything he had not to tear up. These people, the Balmerans, weren’t like the Arusians, who seemed to be doing okay outside of when Sendak attacked Arus (but only because Voltron was there). The Alteans suffered an incredible loss, but it was one that even his empathetic mind couldn’t truly wrap around, and with the way Allura and Coran pushed forward, it didn’t quite seem  _ real _ to him. He had no context for it.

The Balmerans were actively suffering. He could  _ see _ what the Galra were doing to them, what the Galra had taken from them. What they would likely  _ continue _ to take from them until the Balmera just couldn’t take it anymore and died. This pain, this suffering, was  _ tangible _ .

Not for the first time, Hunk wished that there was something that  _ he _ could do. Except, there really  _ was _ something that he could do? He might not have been able to stop homelessness on Earth, but he  _ did _ have a way to help with this.

He was one of the only people that  _ could _ help.

Fixing a stern gaze on her, Hunk said, “Nope. No. Things are  _ changing _ . Have you ever heard of Voltron?” He wasn’t sure if Zarkon would have erased the existence of Voltron from history. Given that he wanted it for himself though, Hunk doubted it. He probably wanted people to dread the day Voltron became his.

“A child’s tale,” Shay dismissed, though it was confirmation that she heard of it. If the Balmerans heard of Voltron before, there was a good chance that others did as well.

“It’s real,” he insisted and tapped at the yellow V on his chest. “I'm one of the Paladins, and Voltron is going to defeat Zarkon."

Shay’s eyes widened, “You are?” That’s when Hunk saw it, the small flicker of hope in her yellow eyes.

“Stop filling this one's head with your shadow show!” Rax snapped, having been hovering in the shadows of the cave, listening to them. “The cavern is our home. This will never change. Come."

Shay very reluctantly followed her brother back into the shadows of the cave, and Hunk scowled.

He was going to prove them wrong. He was going to prove that Voltron wasn’t just a child’s story or a shadow show. He was going to prove that things could change. He was going to make sure that Shay saw the sky.

They were going to get the crystal back, heal Lance, and he was going to argue with Pidge about staying because they needed all five Paladins.

As he got to work finishing the last of the pod, a soft snort escaped him as he realized that Keith had been right. This was so much bigger than just them. Hunk had the ability to help, and yeah, he’d probably be scared and anxious, but now that he  _ knew _ what was happening, there was no way he could turn his back on everyone who needed Voltron.

He wouldn’t let anyone suffer anymore.

…

Keith was more than just a little bit frustrated. Sure, they managed to sneak under the barrier in what Allura described as a wonderfully primitive way (he got the feeling that Alteans hadn’t had to dig many tunnels with their bare hands, these odd Arusian spoon-things, and a rapier), and they got into the castle itself, but unless they wanted to set off some alarms and alert Sendak that they were there, Allura’s secret passages were a no-go. They were stuck in a little hallway between two solid doors, one that led outside, and one that had sensors on it.

“Just wait,” Allura repeated, having said the same thing a few times now.

“Yeah, okay,” Keith replied bitterly, “just wait while Lance is dying, Shiro is hurt, and Pidge is attacked by whatever sentries they have inside.”

The Princess huffed out a sigh and met his gaze. “I know it’s frustrating. I understand. There’s nothing more I want than to rip through this door. We have the element of surprise right now though, and if the sensors aren’t turned off, it’ll alert Sendak that we’ve entered the main part of the ship.” She suddenly looked very sheepish. “I must apologize though, as that  _ is _ technically my fault.”

Keith blinked at her. “What is?”

“The sensors being around these doors.” There was a ghost of a smile on her face. “My father had them installed after I snuck out a few too many times and he ended up leaving me behind on a planet.”

That momentarily distracted him from his worries. “ _ What _ ?”

“I admit, perhaps I was a little too rebellious for a Princess during a war,” Allura admitted before a righteous annoyance overtook her. “Though I  _ did _ convince the Caldallavay people to join our alliance when my father could not, so I don’t believe it was necessary to put sensors on all the doors so he knew when I was trying to leave.”

Keith couldn’t help himself. This entire situation was so ridiculous, that a snort of a laugh escaped his lips, which prompted her to smile slightly in return. “So let me get this straight, you were a bit of a rebel of a teenager?” Actually, he could see that. Allura had a temper that rivalled his own, not to mention more pride that he could  _ ever _ hope to have. Add in a dose of teenage arrogance and recklessness, he could completely see her deciding that her father hadn’t done enough to get an alliance and going to do it herself instead.

“160 is a difficult age for Altean children,” Allura answered, which wasn’t really an admission of anything.

“I bet it is.” That was still mind boggling.

Allura suddenly looked up, bright eyes focused on the door as a grin spread across her lips. A moment later, the door slid open. The mice stood before them, quite proud of themselves.

“I got them to turn off all the sensors,” Allura explained. She smiled warmly at the mice. “Now please, go and hide. I don’t want any of you to be injured.” They squeaked, and quickly scurried out of the way.

Keith  _ wanted _ to run to the main control room, but knew that was a bad idea. Instead, he looked at her and asked, “Where would Pidge go?”

Allura thought for a moment before she nodded to herself, then said, “Follow me.”

…

If there was one thing that Pidge was glad for, it was the fact that she was small enough to get through the castle’s ventilation with ease. There was enough room for her to move without her armour scraping over everything and making a ton of noise.

That was how she ended up back where she started, able to listen to Sendak talk to the other Galra below her.

“Powering sub panels,” he said.

“Sub panel energy transducer is go,” Sendak replied.

“Aye, sir. Opening pathway to link with Bridge. Initializing main cluster reboot."

A smirk rose up on Pidge’s lips as she was able to get a visual of the screen she was working with. She quickly went through the programming in her gauntlets, capturing the image of how he got in, mirroring it through her suit. “Gotcha.” Altean tech was amazing, and this guy was clearly trying to use Galra programming with Altean hardware. It was working, but it wasn’t coming easy.

"Initializing complete. I'm set for main power up."

“The Bridge is a go."

Pidge waited with baited breath as Haxus said, “Powering up.”

Pure glee rushed through her as she let him start powering up the system, but then quickly locked him out, using the screen projected from her suit to overload the engine. “And up, and up, and up. I would not want to be touching a metal surface when this thing overloads." She looked up as an alarm blared.

“Sir, something is wrong!” In the same moment the engine exploded, Pidge leapt up into the air, holding onto Rover to keep her suspended so that none of the electricity could pass through her. The Galra, on the other hand, was thrown backwards, his body twitching from the electricity.

He was still alive though, which was incredibly impressive. Galra were  _ durable. _

Rover brought her back over to the bridge that led to the console, jumping down onto the solid surface at the same time the Galra looked up at her. His yellow eyes narrowed as he said, “You’re the one causing all this trouble? A child?”

Anger rose up in her. “Yeah, I’m a child, and this child not only bested you, but is a Paladin of Voltron too.” She summoned her bayard, getting the feeling that this guy wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

The Galra  _ laughed _ at her. “Let me tell you something, child.” He drew his sword out of its sheath. “I, Haxus, am a soldier of the Galra Empire. Nothing stops me but victory or death." He let out a startling cry and charged towards her.

She ducked out of the way, using her grappling hook to attack while keeping distance between them.

A startled scream escaped Pidge’s lips as he grabbed the cord and tugged with enough force to throw her across the room. It never once occurred to Pidge to let go of her weapon, desperately holding it as her only defense against the Galra.

She scrambled back as he rushed towards her. Rover flew around him, beeping wildly as he tried to distract him, and for a moment, Pidge really wished that she hadn’t turned off the lasers (to appease everyone else, who wasn’t too keen on having a little robot loyal to her and her alone that could shoot them).

Haxus’ sword careened down at her, only to crash into a glowing shield. A pair of arms grabbed her, pulling her back, and she found herself looking at the back of red and white armour.

“How did  _ you _ get on board?” Haxus snarled at Keith, who didn’t bother answering, keeping himself firmly planted in front of Pidge.

Allura helped her up, eyes frantically looking around the room for an idea of what to do. Just their presence was good enough for Pidge though. She wasn’t alone anymore, and that gave her more than a little confidence.

Rover flew into Haxus’ face, sending him reeling to the side. Pidge  _ launched _ herself around Keith, sliding on the floor between Haxus’ legs and throwing him off balance. He teetered, slipping off of the edge of the catwalk. In a wild swipe to try and find purchase to stay up, he ended up wrapping his hand around Rover.

“Rover!” Pidge yelled, and the drone started beeping and flashing wildly.

“Run!” Allura yelled, full-on  _ lifting _ Pidge off of the ground, darting back to where the door was so that they weren’t on a catwalk. They skidded to a stop, and Keith slid in behind them, his shield still up.

“No!” Pidge yelled as Rover exploded midair. Haxus screamed as he plummeted down. Pidge  _ wished _ that he fell far enough where she couldn’t hear him hit the bottom, but she did. She heard the sickening thud and crunch, followed by a heavy silence.

“Are you okay?” Allura asked, her voice low, almost a whisper.

“Rover,” she muttered. It was only a couple days, but Rover was her first friend, and now he was gone. He sacrificed himself to defeat Haxus and save them all.

“Haxus, report in,” Sendak’s voice echoed through the room.

Allura looked like she was about to rise up to confront him, but Pidge’s wits came back to her quickly and she hissed, “Don’t. He only knows one of us is here. Stay out of sight.”

Keith and Allura looked at one another before nodding, staying out of sight in case a video feed popped up, as Pidge approached the console to confront Sendak. “Haxus is gone, and  _ you’re _ next.” She wasn’t going to let Rover’s sacrifice be for nothing.

"You've slowed me down, but this ship is mine! You will turn yourself over to me immediately!"

Did he really believe that she was going to do that just because he said it in a cranky voice? He really had a lot to learn about human beings. Pidge had teachers with angrier voices. “Never!”

There was a pause and then Sendak said, "Well, then, maybe your leader can convince you."

Keith inhaled sharply, and Pidge looked around to see that Allura was holding both of his shoulders with what seemed like a supportive grip at first, but was actually meant to hold him in place to stop from doing anything stupid that gave them away.

“What do you want?” Shiro’s voice came from the computer, weary, with a little bit of a slur, but more angry than anything else.

"Your friend wanted to hear from you."

“Shiro?” Pidge asked, unable to hide how small she felt in that moment.

"Pidge? Pidge, don't listen to—" Shiro’s protests were cut off by a blood-curdling scream. Pidge recoiled, and a light scuffle behind him ensued, Allura managing to pin Keith, knee on his back, her hands pressed over his mouth to stop him from screaming at Sendak.

“No!” Pidge yelled loudly, wanting it to stop for all their sakes (mostly, Shiro’s, of course).

"You can make it stop. Turn yourself in. His suffering is in your hands." The screaming continued until Pidge forced herself to turn off the feed.

“I’ll let you go as long as you don’t run off and do something stupid,” Allura said to the Red Paladin, who glared back. He relented when she added, “It won’t help Shiro if we run in and get caught as well.” He nodded his head.

For a second, Pidge thought that he was going to run off, looking every bit like an angry panther ready to pounce (she’d been about to compare him to a cat, but Keith was a little more lethal than that). He paced back and forth for a moment before snapping, “I’m going to  _ kill _ him.”

“As much as I’d love nothing more,” Allura said, placing a firm hand on his shoulder again, “we need information on the Galra Empire that’s current.”

“You want to take him alive,” Pidge noted. She looked from one to the other, noting just how dirty and mussed up they both were. What happened to them, and how had they gotten inside? Did the mice get the shield down? No, then Sendak would know that others could be with her.

What the heck?

“We need a plan,” Allura insisted. “It’s just the three of us. Pidge, you know more than either of us what’s going on here.”

She nodded her head slowly, gears in her head whirring around and around as she looked from Allura, to Keith, and back again. The Princess’ face was grim-set, and Keith looked ready to take on Zarkon himself.

Pidge thought about their strengths and weaknesses she’d noted so far. She thought about Shiro and Lance. She thought about the crystal.

“Is there anywhere on the bridge where we can trap Sendak?” she wondered. Cuffs weren’t going to work for this guy.

Allura’s brow furrowed in thought before she slowly shook her head. “The only thing that separates something from anything else is the barrier we can erect around the crystal, but how would…oh.” Her eyes snapped to Keith for a moment, before turning back to Pidge. “That’s  _ exactly _ what we can use.” She didn’t care if  _ that _ crystal was destroyed.

A smirk rose up on Pidge’s lips. “I think I have an idea.”

… 

“Is your ship repaired that you may depart our presence?" Hunk mentally steeled himself as Rax spoke the second that Coran came back into their home. He knew that they technically were in danger by harbouring them, but did he need to be so rude?

No, Hunk couldn’t make assumptions. “Are you saying that you want us to leave?” He tried to speak in a light tone.

“Yes,” Rax answered simply.

Hunk inhaled, keeping himself calm. God, this guy was a complete and utter jerk. How could he be siblings with someone as sweet and kind as Shay? "Well, it's working, but we can't leave without the crystal."

He looks over to Coran. “You come up with any ideas how to get it?"

The Altean smirked at him. “Actually, yes.”

Hunk liked to think that he had pretty good instincts, and he suddenly felt a wave of dread wash over him. He did not like that smirk at all.

Fast forward not even a half an hour (or whatever it was…half a dobash? Hunk didn’t know), and he was  _ positive _ that this was a horrible idea, but it was literally the best they had.

Honestly, it was a simple plan. Hunk took out a single sentry, and then they used that armour and a blanket to pose as a sentry themselves. There was an issue of height, which Coran corrected by sitting up on Hunk’s shoulders.

Let it be known that Coran was not at all a light man. Hunk was strong, but it was hard wandering around with the weight of another person on your shoulders. Literally. Maybe if he could use his hands to steady Coran, it would have been easier, but he had his bayard at the ready for if (and when) this went horribly wrong.

Teetering forward precariously, Hunk muttered, “I can't believe I'm the legs again. I'm the one who took down the guard. I should get to be the head." Really though, it would make sense for him to be the head with his arms free to use his bayard, not…this.

“Oh, hello, gentlemen, shift’s over,” Coran said as they reached two sentries guarding the crystal. “Boss needs you back at the guard shack.”

It was at that moment Hunk decided the cave bugs or the cave roots must have gotten to him because  _ what the heck were they doing _ ? This didn’t work in children’s shows, so why would it work now? This was literally the worst idea they could have come up with. It would have been better to just run forward firing. Hunk had a big cannon, he could do that.

"Verify identification code."

"Right. I didn't want to have to do this, but I'm going to have to pull rank. You guys are in big trouble, right? So, hand over those blasters and ID badges."

Yup. They were  _ doomed _ .

"Verify identification code or be destroyed,” the sentry said. Hunk couldn’t see what was going on, but he could hear their blasters charging.

Coran’s hands moved to the blanket, and his own held tight to his hand cannon. "Okay, okay. I've got it right here!" Coran threw off the blanket, and Hunk immediately began firing, which is probably what he should have done from the beginning, because this was ridiculous. He took the sentries out easily.

He leapt from his shoulders and headed towards the massive, turquoise crystal that was softly glowing the dark, eyeing the dirt on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Hunk asked, firing another round at more sentries. “We gotta hurry!”

“I’m not just going to pry this out of here like some Galra monster!” Coran scolded him, entirely offended by the notion of hurrying. “The Balmera is a sacred being. You have to communicate with it. Let your life forces connect. This is the way it was done in our time."

“Okay, that’s a good thing, we don’t want to hurt it, but can you, like, communicate a little faster?” There were more and more sentries descending on them, and if they didn’t get moving soon, he might not be able to make an opening for them to get back to their ship.

Coran nodded his head and pressed his hand against the surface of the crystal, knowing that Hunk was correct. The problem was that this poor Balmera was in a lot of pain. So much had been taken from it. He didn’t want to take more, but they needed it right now. Everything was counting on them.

The Balmera understood this, and was thankful that he wasn’t just  _ taking _ . It wasn’t much, but it was enough for the Balmera to release the crystal. It happened so suddenly, that when Coran tried to grab it, he tilted backwards funnily, a nasty  _ crack _ nearly overtaking the sounds of the blasters firing.

“Are you okay?” Hunk cried out in alarm.

“I think I’m broken,” Coran wheezed as pain radiated from his back. He  _ used _ to be able to carry things this weight before. He was only 550 years old, he should be able to handle this.

He looked up as the sounds of firing stopped, and realized with horror that they were all completely surrounded. He bet that the only reason they weren’t firing was due to the crystal.

“Okay, guys!” Coran said as he tried to struggle to his feet. “Blasters and badges. Come on. Give them up!" He fell over again, pain arching through him.

Beside him, Hunk groaned, his cannon vanishing as he held up his hands. There really wasn’t much else they could do at the moment.

The sentries marched them away from the crystal, and down deep into the tunnels.

"Quiznak!” Coran muttered as they were sealed behind the energy barriers of a prison cell. “I can't believe they saw through our disguise..."

“Really?” Hunk asked skeptically.

The man’s shoulders slumped slightly. “No, not really. I apologize, Hunk.”

He sighed and slumped to the ground. “How long have we been here? Do you think the others are okay?” Hunk paused, not really wanting to know the answer. “Do you think Lance is okay?”

He didn’t like the hesitation that passed over the man’s face. “I’m sure the others will be able to keep him stable until we can get back. It’s not like he’ll be up fighting Galra or anything.”

For a moment, Hunk sounded like a deflating balloon. He knew without a doubt that if Lance regained consciousness for even a moment, he’d probably be up trying to do pretty much anything and everything.

_ Oh no _ . He’d probably start flirting with Allura worse than normal, and then she’d kill him.

Hunk wasn’t sure how long they sat in that little cell. He was too lost in his thoughts of what would happen to Lance. What would happen to the castle. What would happen to everyone else. What would happen to the people of the Balmera. It was enough to make his chest feel a little tight.

The sound of rapid footsteps reached his ears, and Hunk looked up nervously. 

“Someone’s coming,” Coran noted as he straightened up, grimacing a bit in pain.

Hunk braced himself, ready to summon his bayard again if he needed to (bonus side of that kind of weapon: it couldn’t be taken from him easily). His mouth fell open when he saw who it was. “Shay?”

The Balmera appeared from the darkness, wielding a sentry’s arm that had very clearly been ripped off. It was both terrifying and awe inspiring. Right then and there, he decided that Shay was absolutely amazing.

She pushed the sentry’s hand against the scanner, and the barrier that was around them fell away.

"Make haste to your pod. The crystal is prepared for departure,” Shay ordered them, turning to lead the way.

They exchanged glances with one another before quickly scrambling after her. “How did you get the crystal?” Coran asked in awe.

"I was assigned to take it to the upper levels, but instead I took it down,” she explained as they hurried. “Soon, they will discover my ruse. Time is short."

“Why are you helping us?” Hunk wondered. “You’ll get in trouble.” He really didn’t want Shay to get hurt or for anything to happen to her. She was such a nice girl, and she didn’t deserve to get dragged down with them.

"Because your words touched my heart,” Shay answered, casting a glance his way. “I wish for freedom for all Balmera. Perhaps your Voltron can make it so."

His eyes widened, and suddenly, he understood why Allura insisted that Voltron itself was a symbol of freedom. He got it now. What the victims of the Galra needed was hope, was something to rally behind. It wasn’t just that they could fight the Galra themselves, but they could inspire others to fight as well.

They rounded the corner to where the pod was, and came to an immediate halt. In front of them was Rax with several armed sentries.

“No,” Shay breathed out, her eyes going wide. “Rax, why?”

"These two bring only trouble to our family. It was the only way to protect you,” Rax said as if they were pure facts.

Hunk’s cannon formed in his hands as he gritted his teeth. “Are you really that stupid?” He was going to shred all of these sentries, and hopefully Rax stayed out of the way. Not that he wouldn’t deserve to be a little injured. Not death. Just…a little maimed.

"No!” Shay held up one hand to stop him, and then pressed her palm against the side of the cave. “The Balmera will save us."

Rax yelled in protest, but the Balmera already responded to her. The cavern shook, and rocks fell from the top, crushing several sentries.

“Hurry!” Coran cried out, and they made a break for the pod. The Balmera failed to take out all of the sentries though, and a couple managed to grab a hold of Shay as she was trying to run.

“Shay!” Rax yelled out to his sister.

“Go!” She kept her attention on Hunk and Coran even as she struggled. “Make haste!”

“Let her go!” Hunk yelled from his spot half inside the Altean pod. He was about to go back, but Coran grabbed his arm.

“No, Hunk.” The Altean gave him a very serious look without a hint of his normal joking tone. “We have to go!”

Hunk hesitated, but there were more sentries piling in, and he could hear the sound of the fighters flying above them. He took a deep breath and climbed all the way into the pod. "I'll come back for you, Shay! I promise!"

He wasn’t going to leave her alone to suffer because she helped them. It wasn’t an option. They needed to help Lance first, and then bring all of Voltron back.

The pod lifted off of the ground and shot into the air. With the weight of the crystal, it went slower than before, and the Galra fighters were able to keep up with them, even with Coran’s wild flying.

"We can't shake them! We're not going to make it!" They were just too slow right now, and it wasn’t like Hunk could get the pod back to 100% with the tools and time he had.

His mind ran over the situation quickly, trying to look at it as a machine. He could handle machines, because they were familiar. All the pieces fit together to work a certain way.

A flew laser blasts streaked by them as his eyes fell onto the button Pidge re-labeled and motioned towards it.

"Uh, it may turn us into a giant fireball,” Coran pointed, hesitant to push it.

“Maybe,” Hunk agreed, “but if it doesn’t, they will.” He motioned to the fighters that were approaching them.

“Fire in the hole!” Coran called out as he pressed the button.

Hunk braced for an explosion, but instead, they were practically  _ thrown _ forward, streaking up out of the atmosphere.

Coran whooped and cheered, and Hunk pumped his fist in the air in celebration. They did it! They were going to make it!

He cast his eyes back to the Balmera as they flew from it, and determination rushed through him. They were going to come back and help Shay and all of the other Balmerans. They had to.

They were the Paladins of Voltron, after all.

…

Pidge peered into the Bridge, oddly eerie and dark with the only major source of light being the violet glow of Sendak’s crystal. Shiro and Lance lay in front of it, both of them heavily injured. Lance was still unconscious, but Shiro was awake, glaring up at Sendak as the Galra loomed over him.

God, Sendak was huge in real life. It seemed like all Galra must be big in general, but he was way bigger than the other guy.  


"I'm impressed that you managed to escape. Perhaps it would be worth the trip to your planet to see if the rest of your kind has your spirit. Of course, they will all end up broken, just like you. Now that we have Voltron, every planet, every race, all share the same fate."

Pidge’s eyes narrowed, and she muttered, “Like  _ hell _ .” She cast a glance across from her, where Keith and Allura waited for her signal in the shadows. This was her plan and her show, and they were both counting on her to pull this first part off.

She used the controls in her gauntlet to project another image of herself, making it peer into the bridge as she hit the door to draw Sendak’s attention.

“You,” the Galra snarled.

The three of them pushed themselves into the shadows as Sendak stormed out of the bridge, after the hologram as it ran. Keith and Allura ducked inside first, hurrying into position.

Pidge saw Keith hesitate when he looked at Shiro and Lance, but quickly went to hide. She knew that he probably wanted nothing more than to run to them, but he stuck with her plan. She really appreciated that.

She barely got inside when Sendak came flying back in, grabbing a hold of her shoulder roughly. "You really thought your little hologram trick would work with me?"

“Yeah, cause it did,” she answered with a grimace.

Keith came flying out of the shadows, face burning with rage as he swung his sword down towards the Galra. He tossed Pidge aside, using his arm to meet Keith’s weapon.

The two of them struggled against one another, and while Sendak was distracted, Allura snuck over to the controls. Pidge quickly ran over to Shiro and Lance, the former looking up at her with confused eyes.

“Sorry,” she said quickly as she grabbed him and tugged him away from the crystal. He grunted in pain but tried to help her out a bit by moving along with her. She left him out of range of the crystal, then quickly went back to grab Lance to do the same, mentally wincing a bit as she left him. She really hoped that nothing got messed up internally. 

Keith yelped in pain as he was thrown to the ground. Sendak raised his arm up, but before he could bring it down on him, a couple blue blasts slammed into him, throwing the Galra completely off-balance.

Pidge twisted around just in time to see Lance’s blaster disappear, his eyes fluttering as he tried to stay conscious.

Keith growled and threw himself back up. Sendak snarled as he turned to fight him again, straining against Keith’s weapon. “You fight like a Galra…relentless even in a losing scenario. This puny sword cannot hope to defeat me.” Which, yeah, was probably true. Pidge doubted Keith’s bayard could cut through his armour, but it wasn’t designed to do that in the first place. “You won’t win.”

“We already have,” Keith grunted as he shifted back a bit. “Pidge!”

She leapt forward before Sendak could realize what she was doing, too distracted by trying to defeat Keith. She brought her bayard down, severing the energy that held the two pieces of his arm together with the electricity from her grappling hook.

Keith lunged at him again with renewed ferocity, forcing Sendak back towards the crystal.

During all of this, Allura furiously worked the controls, getting through all of the Galra language and coding with ease. Her bright eyes looked up as she yelled, “Keith! Now!”

Pidge watched as Keith leapt up on command, and slammed his heels into Sendak to force the Galra back. The Galra yelled from the impact, and surged back towards Keith, who had landed on the ground in an oddly elegant roll. Sendak didn’t have the chance to try and attack again, a barrier rising up around him and the crystal.

Sendak slammed against it, snarling like a wild animal.

“You think you can come into  _ my _ castle, injure  _ my _ paladins, and take  _ my _ lions?” Allura spat at him. She didn’t give him the chance to answer, pressing a button that caused a blast of energy from the crystal to slam into him.

Pidge’s chest heaved as she watched the Galra slump to the ground, unconscious. She fell to her knees, and almost felt like crying. They did it.

The castle was theirs’ again.

…

Pain was a funny thing. Seriously, it was freaking hilarious. Lance wasn’t sure why he  _ wasn’t _ smiling, it was  _ so _ funny. Everything just hurt, and he was pretty sure that there was some kind of bandaid on his butt. Oh god, he was going to have  _ butt scars _ , wasn’t he? Damn, he did something really cool, and couldn’t even get a badass scar out of it. Stupid armour doing the job it was meant to do. He bet  _ Keith _ would have gotten a badass scar.

Lance wasn’t  _ entirely _ sure what happened. He did kind of remember a wrong-Rover, and a lot of pain, but coming back to the world only to find Shiro beat up beside him, and  _ Sendak _ about to crush Keith was still confusing.

“Lance? Are you okay?”

He blinked, staring at the feet in front of him, slowly following the legs up to stare at Keith’s face. The other boy was covered in dirt and sweat, his hair a god-awful mess, his brow furrowed, and a frown on his face.

Holy crow, he was  _ beautiful _ . What the cheese? Why had no one  _ told _ him that before?

“Lance?” Keith reached out to him, and Lance instinctively reached back, grabbing his hand, though he didn’t try to get up. He was  _ pretty _ sure that moving too much was a bad idea because things hurt, which was really funny.

Instead, Keith knelt down beside him. Violet eyes scanned over him.

“Is he okay?”

Keith looked up as Allura approached, just as dirty and sweaty and as much of a mess as Keith was. Yet, as Lance’s eyes glanced from one to the other, he couldn’t help but feel like he was  _ blessed _ . If there was a sight he had to go out on, this one of the two most beautiful people he’d ever seen was a good one.

Keith let go of his hand, which Lance did not at all appreciate. He pouted a bit as Keith did something with his gauntlet. There was a glow, a small screen popping up. He showed Allura, and she frowned, straightening up a bit. “Right. I’ll go see if I can get some type of auxiliary power up. I need to move Sendak first to get access to that crystal, then I’ll see if we can use it safely if Coran and Hunk don’t come back soon.” She turned around and walked away.

Lance frowned when he realized that Keith was watching her go. He didn’t want to sit there and watch that. He shifted, a grunt escaping his lips, and the other boy immediately turned to him. Keith reached out, grabbing his hand again. “Hey, you gotta stay still.”

“Floor’s uncomfortable,” Lance mumbled, but felt warm and content again when Keith took his hand. “Stupid Galra left me here. My head is sore. And my arm. And my back. And my other arm. And my leg. And my other leg. And my butt. My butt,  _ Keith _ .” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “My butt.”

A small smile appeared on Keith’s face, and if Lance had to give it a description, he’d say it was  _ affectionate _ , which couldn’t be right, but he felt like preening under the look. He didn’t want those eyes to watch Allura walk away, he wanted them to be on  _ him _ . He always had.

Oh. Oh that made sense. Well damn. Things weren’t supposed to go  _ that _ way. All of Lance’s siblings were bi (literally), he was supposed to be the unique one that was straight. God, that sounded dumb. Normal Lance was really dumb.

Huh, he wondered if Galra could be bi? Wait, no, Coran said something about them mating for life and only feeling things for their partner didn’t he? Did that make them demi? Weird. Speaking of Galra, his eyes turned to where Allura and Pidge were hauling up Sendak’s unconscious body onto some kind of stretcher, quickly moving him out of the room. “We kicked his ass. Ha! We kicked his  _ ass, _ Keith. We avenged mine!”

Keith chuckled at him. “We did.”

They avenged his butt? That was nice of them! Was he delirious? Lance felt a bit delirious, but he also felt like he was experiencing more clarity than ever before. He smiled back at Keith, and it kind of hurt to smile, but dammit, Keith was cute and they kicked ass so he was going to smile. “We make a good team. All of us. Also you and me.”

Surprise crossed over Keith’s features before it shifted to an even warmer smile that sent Lance’s heart skyrocketing. Wow, he felt dizzy. “I’m dizzy,” he repeated to Keith, who looked like he was about to ask a question, but Lance didn’t let him get a word out, “and I’m not sure if it’s my health, or because of you.”

Keith blinked, and oh gosh, did his cheeks turn pink? That’s  _ adorable _ .

“Hey Keith?” Pidge appeared beside both of them. “Allura and I put Sendak in one of those cryopods, and now we’re going to help Shiro to the med bay—yes you do have to go, Shiro—”

“I’ve got Lance,” Keith said quickly, and Lance swooned a bit. Keith certainly  _ did _ have him. He turned his attention back to him, and looked him over. Wow, Lance wished that he wasn’t so beat up, and that he had a shower or something, he felt dirty. Keith was finally paying attention to him, finally  _ seeing _ him, and he looked like crap.

“Don’t look at me, I’m hideous,” Lance muttered.

A genuine laugh escaped Keith’s lips, and he’d really like to hear that again. Every day for the rest of his life would be nice. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?

“No you’re not,” he chuckled, leaning close to him. “I’m going to pick you up, okay? It’s probably going to hurt, but I’m going to get you to the med bay as quickly as I can.”

“Sweep me away, Mullet,” Lance muttered, throwing his arms out and grimacing. Quiznaking  _ ow _ , that hurt! What the heck? Oh right, he blew up. Wait, where was Coran? He saved Coran, didn’t he? Allura was helping Shiro up (she had to be strong because Shiro was just…wow), so if Coran was dead she wouldn’t be so calm, right? Yes, that seemed right.

Wait? Where was Hunk? He hadn’t seen Hunk anywhere.

Lance groaned, his entire body protesting as he was lifted up.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Keith whispered, his voice low and so close that it made Lance shudder slightly.

They were moving, and Lance looked around. The castle was all dark, and that was weird. He looked up at Keith’s face, and realized holy crow, he was in Keith Kogane’s  _ arms _ . He was being cradled like a  _ princess _ . Ha! Suck it, Allura! Keith was cradling  _ him _ , not her!

Lance shifted closer, resting his head on Keith’s shoulder. Everything  _ hurt _ so much, but he felt so safe. It was weird. He felt peaceful and content and  _ oh no _ . “Am I dying?”

“No,” Keith answered firmly. “You’re not going to die. We’re just waiting for Hunk and Coran to come back with a crystal to power the castle. Then you’re going into the healing pod.”

Oh! Hunk and Coran were both okay. That was good. Really good! He hummed in acknowledgement and said, “Okay.” He brought his arms up around Keith’s neck, despite the discomfort and strain. His fingers started playing with his hair, and up close he realized that, wow, Keith could use a bit of a trim, he had a lot of dead ends. Probably from the desert air and not using the right conditioner. God, Keith’s hair would probably be super soft. A soft mullet. Well, Lance  _ knew _ Keith’s hair  _ technically _ wasn’t a mullet, he didn’t have the right style in the front, but he wasn’t going to admit that!

They must have gotten to the med bay, because the next thing Lance knew, he was being lowered onto something soft and that actually felt nice. What  _ didn’t _ feel nice was the fact that Keith was letting go of him. He kept his arms around his neck and said, “Stay.” Was he pleading? Eh, it didn’t matter. He’d beg for those arms to stay around him.

Keith stared at him for a moment before he nodded his head. He awkwardly sat on the side of the mattress, well, sort of. It kind of looked like only half his leg was on the bed. What the heck, why was his awkwardness adorable like that?

“Woah, what are you  _ doing _ ?” Keith demanded as Lance tried to sit up, putting a hand on his back to stabilize him.

“Sit,” Lance demanded, pointing at where he’d been lying.

Apparently unable to deny him anything (Lance filed that away for future use), Keith sat properly on the bed. A strange sound escaped him as Lance leaned back and rested his head on his lap. This was so much better. Holy crow, this was nice.

Keith’s hands hovered awkwardly before they both rested on the bed. “Don’t go to sleep. Not now that you’re awake.”

“Comfy,” Lance muttered, because he was. Well, no, he hurt like a bitch, but he also felt so safe and warm. He poked at Keith’s leg. “Damn, you got killer thighs. And a nice butt.”

Keith spluttered a bit, the red on his face becoming darker. “Don’t say things like that if you don’t mean it.”

“I  _ do _ mean it,” Lance said. A bit of a giggle escaped his lips because this whole thing was funny. “Hey, hey Keith? I blew up. Everything hurts. A lot.”

“I know,” Keith replied after a moment, almost as if the constantly shifting conversation confused him. “Don’t do it again.”

“Got you to cuddle me. I like cuddles. I used to get cuddles from my family. Or they’d just sit on me cause I was the youngest but you know what I mean. I miss them. We should cuddle more. I like your cuddles.”

“I bet you’re not even going to remember this,” Keith said with a sigh, almost like the idea made him sad.

Lance snorted and  _ fucking ow _ that hurt. “Yes I will. I’ll show you. We’re having a bonding moment. I won’t forget.” He peered up at him, seeing that soft look reflected back at him again. “I don’t like fighting with you. Sorry I’m a jerk sometimes. I always wanted to be your friend.”

Slowly, Keith’s hand rested on the top of his head, and wow, that felt nice. “We can be friends. I’m sorry too.”

A smile overtook his features. Feeling so safe, warm, and content, Lance slowly found himself nodding off.

“Hey, no,” Keith said. “You gotta stay awake.”

Nah, that didn’t sound like a good idea. This was clearly a dream. Real Lance would never be able to get amazing, super talented, super hot, Keith Kogane to stare at him like that, to notice  _ him _ after so long. “Nah.”

“Lance…”

“I got something!” Pidge’s voice came from the room. Lance winced at the sound of her voice, and wow, he really appreciated the fact that Keith was speaking in low tones. “On my comms. Hunk? Okay! Five dobashes!”

“You hear that?” Keith repeated to Lance, a gentle stroke through his hair caused Lance to shudder slightly. “Hunk’s almost back. You’re going to be okay. Just stay awake.” He paused. “We can talk about all this after you come out, okay? When you’re feeling better.”

That sounded like a horrible idea. “Normal Lance is  _ dumb _ . Sleepy-injured-dreaming-maybe delirious Lance is so much cooler.” Oops, he didn’t mean to say that out loud. Oh well.

“I like normal Lance,” Keith replied softly before he shrugged. “Most of the time, at least. Sometimes it’s like…you fight with me just to fight, and then I do it back.”

Lance couldn’t help but smile at that as he stared up at Keith and realized that maybe, just maybe, for the first time someone else might like him  _ back _ . He was really getting those signals. That was  _ amazing _ . A bit terrifying too.

He thought Jenny liked him once too, but turned out  _ that _ wasn’t true at all. It still stung. 

Maybe Lance drifted off again, because he really didn’t remember much until he felt something moving his arm. He looked down at it, watching as Allura removed his glove and pressed this little white cube to his bare skin. It suddenly started expanding, a white material creeping up and over the rest of his body underneath his suit. It was the weirdest thing.

“Was hap-un?” he muttered.

“It’s a cryosuit,” Allura explained. “It helps aid the healing process both in and out of the pods. They form to the body, which is very helpful with the variety of life out there.” She looked up at something above his head. “We can get the armour off of him now.”

Lance suddenly realized that he was still in Keith’s lap. What a nice revelation. Even nicer was the fact that  _ both _ Keith and Allura were leaning in close to help get rid of his armour. “I am blessed,” Lance muttered suddenly. “Like, wow. Two hottest people  _ ever _ helping me out. Blessed.”

Allura shook her head and rolled her eyes, while Keith’s brows furrowed and his lip twitched as he tried and failed to keep a straight face. Well, one out of two was pretty good. It was, like, 50%. That was half!

He  _ definitely _ blacked out at some point of time after that, because the next thing he knew, he was laying inside of one of those cryo-healing pod thingies. He blinked up, recognizing Coran’s vibrant moustache hovering over him, Hunk was there too, staring at him with wide eyes. Was he crying? Lance wanted to tell him not to cry.

There was a bit of movement, and Lance’s eyes turned to meet Keith’s, who was staring at him with so much worry that he wanted to give him a hug. Lance didn’t have the energy for that though. Instead, he held his worried, violet gaze until a wave of cold overtook him, and everything went dark.

…

Allura watched as the healing pod shifted, tilting up so that it was standing vertically (it would be pretty impossible to put someone in standing up, not without hurting them). It was…odd seeing Lance so still and quiet.

“Are you alright, Shiro?”

She turned her attention around to where Keith was looking at the Black Paladin with obvious worry, and for good reason. He wasn’t as bad as Lance, but he was still injured.

“I’ve had worse,” Shiro acknowledged, grimacing a bit as he moved his arm. “Pretty stiff.”

Keith looked over at her. “Shiro needs to go in a pod too.”

“Right you are,” Allura agreed. Shiro protested, but she pointedly ignored him as she fetched another one of the cubes and pressed it to his skin so that the suit spread across his body.

Shiro continued to protest slightly, but eventually, the combined efforts of everyone managed to cajole him into stripping his armour and going into one of the pods.

Allura’s eyes flew over the readings to see how long he’d be in there, when a metaphorical red flag went up. She glanced over at Keith, figuring that he’d know the most about this. “Keith, is this…normal for him?”

Keith scanned the readings, his helmet translating the Altean text, and grimaced. “Yeah. It’s gotten a lot worse though. Whatever the Galra did made him bulk up a lot, but now...”

She looked back at the readings. Now that they weren’t pumping him full of whatever vile substance that they used on him, poor Shiro was getting worse. He had to be in at least moderate pain most days, from the looks of these scans. 

It was mind-boggling, honestly. Illnesses like this didn’t exist in Alteans—and if there was some kind of genetic mutation that was happening, they were able to pick up on it during the fetal stages of development and alter it.

Humans didn’t have that luxury, but looking at Shiro, she would never have been able to tell. They were stronger and more resilient than she gave them credit for. She couldn’t imagine having to look forward to decaphobes of pain.

“We’ve got Sendak’s crystal quarantined in Pidge’s laboratory,” Coran said to her. “Our new crystal is working well, though I have to go fix a few things.” He side-eyed Pidge.

“Oops,” she replied unapologetically. “I’ll show you where everything I messed with is so that we can fix it.” She turned her attention to Hunk. “Want to help?”

“Yeah.” Hunk nodded his head. “The sooner we get the castle ready to go, the sooner we can help the Balmerans.”

That made Allura blink with surprise. She looked up at him and tentatively asked, “You no longer want to leave?”

Hunk’s face fell slightly. “No. I…I wanted to apologize, I guess. I know the Galra hurt you, and they’re hurting a lot of people, but…” He struggled for a moment. “I guess it was different to see it actually happening in front of me. And it was different to see how just a little bit of hope can inspire someone. So I’m going to stay. I’m going to help all these people that can’t help themselves. Starting with the Balmera.”

“Starting with the Balmera,” Allura agreed. They did need a place to start, and a Balmera was an amazing resource to have on their side. It was really a win-win. Not to mention, if it was bad enough to completely change Hunk’s mind, it had to be  _ bad _ .

“I wanted to apologize too,” Pidge spoke up hesitantly. She shifted a bit. “I haven’t been working with you guys how I should have been, and it put a strain on everyone. My dad would be ashamed of me.” She looked up at Shiro and Lance, who slept silently in the pods. “My dad used to tell me how close he was with his crew members. They were like family. Now, I think I’m starting to understand what he was talking about." She smiled at them. "I'm staying with you guys. Let's stop Zarkon for all of our families." The mice squeaked excitedly as they came from their hiding place.

Allura felt warmth rush through her chest, and Keith smiled at her. “Good to have you back on the team. We need that brain of yours.”

Pidge laughed a bit at that.

“I think we all need to get cleaned up before we do anything else,” Allura said slowly. “The castle needs some work, but we’re all exhausted, and we all need some food.”

“ _ You _ think we need a rest?” Hunk asked, his eyebrows shooting up.

Allura almost grimaced at that, but she supposed it was fair. She was a bit of a slave-driver lately. Today though, today gave her so much hope and confidence in the Paladins. She could absolutely see why the lions chose them.

She could see how they could save everyone.

“Yes, I do,” she answered him.

Slowly, they all dispersed to their own areas of the castle to get cleaned up, agreeing to meet in the kitchen to get some food goo within a varga. When Allura got back to her room with the mice, she leaned against the wall, tears building up in her eyes.

They started to squeak in alarm, but she shook her head. “These are happy tears this time.” She fully planned on making a trip down to the AI chamber later to speak to her father, to tell him how proud she was of her Paladins.

They were going to do this. They were going to avenge her people and stop the Galra. They just needed a little more time to prepare themselves.

…

Shiro blinked open his eyes as he regained consciousness. He stumbled forward, unable to hold up his chilled body. Luckily, a pair of arms reached out to steady him.

“Coran,” he acknowledged, blinking his eyes a few times. He just woke up, why was he so tired? “Is the castle okay?”

“Number Two, Number Five, and I fixed up the mess that was made,” Coran assured him. “Careful there, healing chamber legs are just as bad as sleep chamber ones. We need to get some food in you as well.”

Shiro nodded his head, and looked around the room. He paused when his eyes landed on Lance’s pod, not because he was still in it, but because of the scene around it. Keith was sitting with his back pressed against the glass of the cryopod, eyes closed and chest rising up and down slowly.   


He’d seen Keith and Lance’s interactions earlier, and suddenly, Lance’s attitude towards Keith made  _ sense _ . Shiro had  _ seen _ that exact same thing before. It made him a bit worried, because he also saw how Keith responded. He wanted to warn him that it might not turn out how he wanted it to.

From his perspective, Shiro was just like Lance when he was about that age, and things with Adam hadn’t exactly gone smooth in the first place.

He wouldn’t interfere though, because that would just send Keith running, and who knows, maybe he was wrong and Lance wasn’t as much like him as it seemed like he was.

Keith wasn’t the only one resting there though. Allura was curled up alongside him, resting a head on his shoulder. If Shiro had to pick a person that Allura was growing closest too, it was definitely him. It was nice to see. Allura was clearly older than the other Paladins, but at least in mentality and maturity, Shiro got the feeling she was a bit younger than him, putting her in this strange space in between them all. Keith was relatively mature for his age, and they actually did have a lot of similar personality traits, so he was glad that they could be friends to one another.

Hunk was on the other side of Keith, slumped over on the floor, snoring loudly. Pidge was leaning back against his stomach, her computer on the floor in front of her. He got the feeling that neither one of them were going to be running away anymore.

“You should freshen up, get some comfortable clothes on,” Coran said. Shiro looked towards him, but the old Altean was looking at the others with a soft expression on his face. “You all deserve a good sleep.”

Shiro nodded his head and went towards the door, but stopped as he did and looked back at the others. That day had almost been a catastrophic failure on every level, and Shiro was genuinely glad that it was over. He was beyond proud of how everyone pulled through in the end.

There was no doubt in his mind that Shiro wanted to help as many people as he could. He wanted to save the universe not only while there was still one to save, but while he was still there to help. Bad things could happen at any turn, but they couldn’t give up.

They almost lost Lance that day. Pidge and Hunk both almost walked away. Their lions were almost taken. Yet, no one gave up. Everyone kept fighting and pushing forward, even if they were just kids. Kids. That’s who they were. Kids who wanted to get home to their families, but who were probably going to go through hell before getting to that point.

His lips pressed together in a firm line. Shiro was going to get them home. He was going to get them through this, and he would take out anything that stood in his way. He’d do anything for them now.

Anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder: If you see any dialogue you recognize, it's because it's from the show and I make no claim to it. 
> 
> I love writing delirious Lance! It was so much fun! 
> 
> Honestly though this chapter took me *months* to write, because there were just certain aspects that I knew I needed to write about but they just weren't clicking for me.
> 
> Small thing: if you're wondering about Lance's assertion that ALL his siblings are bi, that's actually not entirely true and I am again playing with unreliable narrator (super unreliable at the moment). There actually is a story to that, but that's down the line! 
> 
> And yes, Shiro's big brother mentor was, in fact, Keith's father. Coincidence or fate? Who knows? 
> 
> I also really want to get into Pidge and Hunk's minds in this chapter. Like, what really made them change their minds about leaving? 
> 
> If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I can't promise I'll answer everything in a straightforward way since things do change more and more as we progress beyond the beginning and I don't want to give away spoilers to more creative moments and character beats coming up. 
> 
> Let me know what you think! I'd really appreciate it!
> 
> **Chapter Edited By:[Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon)**


	9. Taking Flight

_ Beep. _

_ “He was a hero, you know.” _

_ Beep. Beep. _

_ “You should be proud of everything he’s done.” _

_ Beep. Beep. Beep. _

_ “He was a great man and he will be dearly missed.” _

Keith’s eyes snapped open, confusion rushing through him at the massive, dark room in front of him, dimly lit with glowing, cyan lights. His back and neck hurt, and he was being held down by  _ something _ . He almost flailed before he caught sight of the pure white hair tumbling over his shoulder.

His fingers were already wrapped around the knife still in its hilt on his belt, but he froze when he recognized the hair and the room.

He calmed down before he could lash out in any way, not wanting to hurt someone else around him. His fingers fell away from his knife, back onto the floor. Honestly, he felt a little bit foolish for nearly freaking out. Of course he knew where he was. He was in the Altean ship, nowhere near Earth, let alone his old shack. He’d been here for days and wasn’t quite sure why he woke up as suddenly and confused as he had this time around.

Then it occurred to him that he wasn’t actually in his room. That’s right, he fell asleep in the med bay.

Keith moved just slightly, Allura muttering something as he did, but she didn’t wake up. Alteans slept less than they did, so either she was really tired (he wouldn’t blame her), or it had only been a couple hours since he nodded off. 

Pidge and Hunk were on the other side of Allura, both leaning against one another as well as Lance’s pod. The boy in question was still suspended within, far paler than he should be from the light and the cold. Coran tried to explain how it worked, but it went right over his head.

Footsteps caught his attention, and Keith’s head snapped around, once again tensing.

Shiro held up his hands so that he could see them. “Just me. Sorry I woke you up.”

Oh. The sound of Shiro coming out of his pod must have been what disturbed him in the first place. Guilt instantly ran through Keith, because here he was leaning against  _ Lance’s _ pod when Shiro was in one too. He should have been sitting outside of his brother’s. Then again, Shiro likely would have  _ stepped _ on him getting out of the pod, which he would have been salty about for a little while but would have gotten over because it meant his brother was okay. They all knew that Shiro was going to be okay from the beginning though. Lance’s wounds were much, much more serious. That said, knowing Shiro would be okay didn’t erase the screams that Keith could  _ still _ hear. The sounds of Sendak torturing Shiro would never go away.

“Are you okay?” Keith asked, trying to keep his voice low, as to not wake up anyone else in the room.

“Yeah, those things are actually pretty amazing,” Shiro said as he came and sat beside him, grimacing a bit. Keith narrowed his eyes at that, and the man shook his head. “I’ve been out for a while now, but I didn’t want to wake any of you. I swear, I’m fine. I guess those pods don’t heal genetic illnesses though.”

Hearing those words sent a sick feeling through Keith’s stomach. A part of him admittedly did hope that maybe they could cure Shiro, but that thought was too good to be true. Though whatever the Galra did to him seemed to have made him better in a sense, since he gained muscle instead of losing it to the disease.

A part of Keith almost wanted to suggest that they put Shiro back on whatever that was, but he knew for a fact that his brother would object to it, plus it had to be bad in the long-run if the Galra gave it to him. Maybe there was something else out there in the universe that could help him. Surely if Alteans were  _ this _ advanced 5,000 years ago, some other non-Galra species might be even more advanced now?

(Though he doubted it, because it was likely that the Galra would steal technological advances, or stop them from happening.)

Shiro stood again. He started towards the door, but stopped and looked back at him. “Coran told me to have a shower after coming out of the pod, but I just went to get some more clothes. For future reference, listen to him. I feel almost...stale now.” He looked confused at his own choice of words, but Keith chose not to question it. “It’s still really early in the morning, and I’d say you should all go to bed, but I doubt I’d get you to move.”

The thought of going somewhere else left a bad taste in Keith’s mouth. He glanced quickly to where Hunk and Pidge were both slumped on the floor, to where Allura was leaning on him, and finally up to Lance. All of them were vulnerable and exposed, and excuse him for being paranoid, but their castle was just taken over by two space koalas and a couple of robots. The thought of leaving any one of them along almost made Keith want to bristle and hiss. Even if they moved Allura, Hunk, and Pidge, it would still leave Lance completely alone. He couldn’t really explain the sudden, fierce protectiveness he felt, but it was like he trusted no one else but himself to keep an eye on his vulnerable teammates. 

That included Shiro. He didn’t really like the fact that his brother was walking away on his own (though he was pretty sure he saw one of the mice follow him), but at the same time he almost wished that Shiro would just go to sleep in his room instead of coming back. He took his position as their leader seriously though, and probably felt the same way Keith did, so he would definitely be back to stay with them. He shouldn’t have to though. If the pods wouldn’t heal him, he really should sleep somewhere more comfortable. The rest of them could handle aches, pains, and stiffness that came from sleeping on the cold, unforgiving floor, but it could do awful things to Shiro. Things that he’d hid for years in an attempt to protect him from the truth.

Keith leaned back a bit to look at Lance. He was glad that Shiro was okay, but he wished that Lance would get out too. He felt more than a little confused about his interactions with the other boy before he went into the healing pod. Just thinking about it made something warm bloom within him, his stomach squirming slightly.

Keith wasn’t at all objectionable to Lance’s flirtations. Actually, he found it a little bit endearing. He was a bit pathetic, wasn’t he? A cute boy flirts with him and says some nice things, and his heart feels like leaping out of his chest. It wasn’t like he expected much out of Lance, not really, but Keith did hope that maybe they could get along now. It’d be nice to have an actual friend outside of his brother.

He yawned and leaned back a little more. Allura muttered something and tucked in closer to him. His eyes fluttered, but he managed to stay awake until Shiro came back. His brother sat beside him and allowed Keith to lean against him as sleep overtook him once again.

As long as they were all together, he felt safe.

…

_ It hurt to breathe even as he poured water over the shirt in his hand and pressed it to his face, exactly like Pa told him to. He stayed close to the floor, below the smoke, as he crawled towards the door. He reached up to the door knob, crying in alarm at the heat of it and jerking back. _

_ Tears filled his eyes. He didn’t know what to do. _

_ “Keith!” He looked up to see his father climb through the window. The man swept down and pulled him into his arms. _

_ Everything would be okay now. His Pa was there. _

“Keith?”

He woke up slowly this time, the remnants of his nightmare prickling at the corner of his mind. It was something that no longer startled him awake, because it was predictable. He knew what was going to happen.

It was pretty telling that he was still here, and his father wasn’t.

Keith shrugged that thought off and looked up at Shiro, who was standing in front of him. Allura was already moving around the room, though Hunk and Pidge continued to nap a few feet away. He yawned loudly as he got up, grimacing as his back cracked. He turned to face the pod, but Lance looked exactly the same as yesterday.

By the time he was done and all stretched out, Shiro managed to rouse both Hunk and Pidge, who both groaned in protest at the fact that they had to move.

“Coran says it’ll be a few more hours til Lance can come out,” Shiro noted as he moved over to Hunk next to wake him. “You all need to stretch your limbs out, get something to eat, have showers, things like that.”

Pidge groaned from the floor. “I don’t wanna.” Hunk rolled over, facing away from the rest of them.

Keith really wanted to be there when Lance woke up, but he knew that Shiro was right. Anything could happen during the day, and they needed to be prepared and ready. Besides, if Lance was going to be in there for a few more hours, it was better to get ready now so that he wouldn’t be alone when he came out of the pod. 

_ The only person that was there when Keith was released from the hospital was a social worker. There was no one else. There wouldn’t be anyone else for a very long time. _

With that in mind, Keith headed back to his assigned room. They all looked the same from the outside (and, technically, the inside as well), so the only way to know whose room was whose was counting the doors, though Coran suggested something about nameplates. That wouldn’t be too bad. The Garrison was like that. 

There were communal showers around the training rooms that were fairly standard. They were individual stalls separated by actual walls (not those flimsy metal doors back on Earth) where water fell from different directions (depending on the settings), likely to accommodate many different kinds of species, but Keith preferred the private one. He would  _ like _ to say that it was because he just liked privacy, but in reality, he just didn’t want anyone questioning why he played with the controls so much.

They were in an  _ alien _ castle that also happened to be a ship. Of  _ course _ Keith was curious about everything. He always knew aliens were real, his Pa said so, and he was fascinated by Altean technology. Not in the same way Pidge and Hunk were, he didn’t need to see the inner workings, but he wanted to test it all out. No one else needed to see him react like a giddy child when he figured out how to make bubbles float around the room though.

The first thing he did was toss his jacket and belt onto his bed, perhaps a bit too roughly. His knife slid out of its sheath, the incredibly sharp blade cutting through his blanket.

“Fuck,” Keith cursed and went to check out the damage. He picked up his blanket in one hand and the knife in the other. His eyes darted from the whole in the fabric, to the knife, and back again, before he turned an accusing look to the blade. “You’re supposed to stay  _ in _ that.”

Because the knife could  _ clearly _ understand him.

Keith sat back on his bed with a sigh as he studied the mutilated blanket. Seriously, the knife only slid a little bit and this was the damage it did? He knew it was sharp, but still!

Actually, it was more than just sharp. Keith had yet to find something that it  _ couldn’t _ pierce, and he tested out a lot of things with the help of his Pa.  _ “You’re going to do it anyway, so I might as well do it with you.” _

Well, no, that wasn’t true. It didn’t cut through the sheath specifically made for it, so there was that.

He cast a glance at the blankets, and guilt rushed through him. There probably were more blankets in the castle, but this one was still good, and it would be a waste to just ask for another one. He’d patch it up later. Maybe Coran had some kind of Altean sewing kit.

Admittedly, Keith  _ did _ have a small, simple suture kit on him with the rest of his first aid stuff (he always kept it in the pouches on his belt, because he never knew when he’d need them), but he didn’t want to waste it on a blanket. He’d sleep with the tattered stuff first. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Keith set his knife down beside him, but then looked back at it. He stared at the old material wrapped around it and frowned.

_ “Never let anyone see this part, okay? It’s very important _ .” Keith understood why his father would always tell him that. The knife was strange, since he didn’t know of any other ones that had a strange, constantly glowing symbol on it.

Allura seemed to think that he had some Altean blood, even if it was a few generations back, so that could explain the oddness of the knife and why his father wanted it hidden. Proof of alien heritage.

Except…that symbol on it certainly didn’t look Altean, and the indigo glow didn’t match the whites and cyans of the castle. There were other things it matched more, but that was something Keith really didn’t want to think about.

Instead, he got up and went towards the bathroom. He’d put his clothes in the quick cleaner (which cleaned their clothes in minutes), hop in the shower, get something to eat, and head back to the Med Bay.

“Morning, Number Four!” Coran chirped at him cheerfully when he made his way to the kitchen, all clean and warm in his recently dried clothes. “Feeling good today?”

“Better than yesterday,” Keith answered as he followed him down the hall.

“Lance will be a little while longer,” Coran explained. “Come get some breakfast. It’s going to be another busy, busy day! It’s Launch Day.”

That was the plan in the first place, but Keith still followed the Altean obediently. For whatever reason, people seemed to think that he was absolutely awful with sleeping habits or eating properly, but it was only logical to get rest and eat. How could he do anything else?

Pa, as well as Shiro and Adam, liked to point out that Keith napped a lot. It was actually something Shiro worried about quite a bit early on, but soon came to realize that it was nothing. Really though, naps were awesome, even if they weren’t exactly practical when going to school.

Shiro was already in the kitchen when they arrived. For a brief moment, something constricted in Keith’s chest as his brother smiled at him. With those clothes on, Shiro  _ really _ reminded Keith of his Pa. Of course, the clothes used to belong to him, so that made sense.

Keith filled a plate with food goo, gathered one of the sporks, and sat down. He mulled over the fact that his father seemed to be on his mind a lot today. He couldn’t quite pinpoint exactly why, but he was.

That aside, he could take care of himself. The one that really needed help was Shiro. Now  _ there _ was someone who was genuinely awful at taking care of himself. There was a reason Keith worried so much.

Hunk, Pidge, and Allura joined them for a very quick breakfast, and soon after, they were all gathered in front of Lance’s healing pod.

“Think he can hear us?” Pidge asked as she pressed her face against the cool surface.

“It’s unlikely,” Allura answered. “These pods essentially put you into stasis so that any damage, or any severe illnesses, will not kill you. It works on healing from there.”

“So it can cure anything?” Shiro asked curiously. His eyes shined with interest, likely stemming from the fact that he spent most of his life in and out of hospitals and medical research facilities for various reasons.

“No.” She looked at him apologetically. “Genetic illnesses are something it can’t tackle, and poisons can be very tricky. It has to know the exact make-up of the poison to help, and given that our archives are 5,000 years out of date, that’s something that we’ll have to watch out for. There are a lot of things it can help though. I’m sure there are illnesses on planets that we haven’t encountered that it would be useless against as well. It’s why the decontamination process is so important when we leave and enter the castle. It’ll be more thorough when we go to other planets.”

Hunk looked at the pods around them. “You got any, like…spare ones? Or ones that aren’t being used? Cause I really want to take a look at how these things work.”

“No can do, Number Two,” Coran said cheerfully from the control panel he was observing. “If we have extras, I will install them in the lions first as a temporary, portable pod. They wouldn’t run on as much power, so they wouldn’t work as well, but it’d be better than nothing. I can show you the schematics and programming for them though.”

“Cool!” He turned back and looked at the pod, squinting at Lance. “You know, I can’t tell if he looks healthy or not.”

“I think he’s breathing weird,” Pidge said as he pulled her face off the glass, leaving a smudge on it.

Weird breathing and pale skin like that was  _ not _ a good thing. It made Keith feel a little anxious. He really, really hated hospitals. He hated being in them. He hated waiting for people in them. Few good things came from them.

“Oh, come on!” He huffed out. He leaned over Pidge and tapped at the pod, as if that would rouse Lance.

Allura grabbed his arm and sent him a  _ look _ . “Not yet! A few more ticks.”

What the heck? His eyebrows rose up as he stared at her skeptically. "How much better do you think he's gonna get in a few more ticks?"

“And what exactly is a tick?” Pidge wondered.

Allura actually looked a bit surprised by the question. Her mouth opened and closed, and she put her hands perpendicular to one another so her palms made a ninety degree angle. “You know, a time-slice.”

“Like a second?” Shiro asked from where he hovered just behind them. As the tallest, he was able to see over their heads pretty easily.

“What is a…second?” The Princess looked even more confused.

“Like this.” Pidge took her orange-screened phone that the Garrison gave to all their students. The idea was to keep track of the students, and to get them organized, but most just used them to talk to one another, take pictures, and play games. Keith spitefully crushed his when he got kicked out.

The Princess tilted her head slightly as she stared at the clock Pidge brought up. “I’m not sure. I think ticks are bigger. Coran, do you have a ticker?” She looked over her shoulder at him.

“Right here, Princess.” He took what was apparently a ticker out of his pocket, and Pidge rushed over to him to compare.

Hunk, Shiro, and Allura followed her. Keith hesitated a bit, staying by the pod. Lance was supposed to get out in only a few ticks, right? Shouldn’t they wait for him?

“I think ticks are a little slower,” Hunk noted.

“I can’t tell.” Pidge shook her head. “We have to start them at the same time.”

Keith actually was really curious, and this would only take a second (a tick, whatever), right? He took one last look at Lance before he joined the others.

He got there just as Coran said, "Okay. Ready, go!" Both he and Pidge started their individual timers at the same time.

“Yes!” Hunk cried out excitedly. “I think we’re winning!”

Amusement rushed through him, and Keith looked up at Hunk. “Winning  _ what _ ? The intergalactic time-measuring competition?"

Completely straight-faced, Hunk looked at him and said, “Yes.” For whatever reason, Keith found that really, really funny.

“We need a bigger sample. Everyone pay attention and we’ll see what the difference between a minute is,” Pidge said, and they all focused on the devices.

“You guys having a clock party?" A tired voice asked from behind them a few seconds (ticks?) later. Keith jumped, relieved that no one else noticed, because it was hard to sneak up on him, something he was very proud of.

“Aw, Lance! You just ruined it!” Hunk pouted, but then realized what he said. “Lance!”

No longer bathed in the pale light of the pod, Lance actually looked a lot better. He was definitely tired, and could probably use a shower, but all Keith could feel was relief to actually see him awake and coherent as Hunk hugged him tightly.

“What happened?” Lance asked as he looked around.

"We can tell you all about it while you get something to eat. Are you able to walk?" Allura asked him, a small smile on her face.

Lance looked much more tired and wobbly on his feet than Shiro had the night before, but he’d been in the pod a lot longer and Keith hadn’t seen his brother right away anyway.

Keith opened his mouth to say something to him, when Lance, still draped against Hunk, sent Allura a tired but flirty grin. "Talking? Eating? Are you asking me out on a date?"

Her friendly smile fell from her face, and Allura’s arms crossed in front of her as she glared at him, beyond unimpressed. Keith felt his stomach drop a bit, especially as Lance very purposely refused to look at him, and instead he glanced at every other person in the room. If they were there, he probably would have smiled at the mice too.

“Yup,” Pidge said with an unimpressed sigh, “there he is.”

“He’s okay,” Shiro agreed with a shake of his head.

Keith scowled a bit. “Classic.” It really was, wasn’t it?

Despite the way his instincts screamed at him to run, to go somewhere else for the time being and to let this go, Keith still followed everyone along as they migrated towards the dining hall so that Lance could sit and eat (it was actually much more comfortable than the cramped kitchen table).

Most everyone was standing around Lance, though Pidge perched herself on one of the seats, and Keith sat beside her on the table itself.

The mice joined them when they got to the dining room, taking bits and pieces of the goo Coran got for Lance. He smiled at the little creatures and listened to the story. It was actually really interesting to hear Hunk and Coran’s side of things.

He and Allura met each other’s gaze, and both silently agreed that they would not reveal that they spent most of their time digging in the dirt. (“We found a flaw in the shield. We need to look out for that, Coran.” The Altean man looked more than skeptical, but didn’t question it.)

“The lions would likely be in the hands of Zarkon right now, if not for Pidge,” Allura noted as she finished the story.

Pidge flushed slightly at the praise. “Well, you wouldn’t have survived the explosion if Hunk and Coran didn’t get the crystal.”

A smile bloomed across Lance’s features. “Thanks, everybody.” Keith jolted slightly as Lance turned his attention to him. “Sounds like the mice did more than you, though.”

His stomach dropped, and Keith felt like he was going to throw up. He thought of how the dirt surrounding him as he dug through the ground reminded him so much of the smoke and heat. He thought of the horror when he heard Shiro being tortured. He thought of the fight with Sendak.

He thought of carefully carrying Lance, of comforting him the best that he could while he was in a lot of pain and there was nothing they could do for it.

Keith’s chest squeezed. “I fought Sendak!”

Lance rolled his eyes. "Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and shot his arm off."

Something akin to horror plagued him, and Keith swore he felt his throat close up. “We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!” Oh  _ god _ , was that his voice? He’d been one of the lucky ones that managed to avoid being in public spaces when his voice cracked as a young teenager.

Hunk snorted, more than amused. Pidge looked almost maniacal. Allura was confused. Shiro stared at Keith with worried eyes.

“Nope,” Lance said quickly and briskly. He waved his hand at Keith and shook his head. “Don’t remember, didn’t happen.” Just like that, he turned his attention back to Allura. “So, what happened to Sendak?”

Keith felt humiliation rush through him. Of  _ course _ Lance didn’t remember, he was out of his mind at the time. He was delirious. He probably didn’t mean a  _ thing _ he said. This was Lance, the guy who claimed to be Keith’s rival, who constantly poked and prodded at him like they were children.

Why would he  _ ever _ want to be friends with someone like Keith?

He faintly heard Allura talking about how they were keeping Sendak in a cryo-pod like the one she’d slept in for 5,000 years. Keith didn’t pay attention to that. They needed to stop talking so he could just  _ go _ . He really didn’t want to be in this room anymore.

Keith crossed his arms in front of him, hands twisting into the tough fabric of his jacket.

“So what’s the plan now?” Lance asked curiously.

“We have to get back to the Balmera and save Shay and her people,” Hunk answered immediately, face suddenly stern.

Everyone stared at him with various shades of surprise. Lance’s eyebrows rose up as he said, “Wow. You are  _ really _ hung up on this lady.”

Hunk shook his head. "No, it's not like that. Look, guys, when you see how Zarkon has treated these people and destroyed their home—They've been under his thumb for so long, they don't even know what it is to be free. It's up to us to set this right. This is what being a Paladin of Voltron is all about. It's time to man up!”

Shiro chuckled and placed a hand on Hunk’s shoulder. “Then let’s get moving. Time to defend the universe.”

“I’ll have the castle ready again in a couple varga,” Coran noted with a nod of his head.

It looked like Hunk was about to ask Coran exactly what a varga was, a continuation of the tick-seconds conversation, but Pidge interrupted him.

“Wait. I have something to say first.” She looked down nervously. “I need to come clean and…I’m afraid this may change the way you all think about me. But I know there really shouldn’t be secrets between us and I haven’t been helping much with the team bonding stuff” She fell silent again as she steeled herself. “I can’t ‘man up’. I’m a girl.”

Lance’s mouth fell open, and he gaped at her. Keith couldn’t help but feel a little vindication rush through him.

“I mean,” Pidge suddenly spluttered, “I  _ can _ ‘man up, because that’s just a figure of speech. A stupid one really, but I can still do it cause I don’t have to be a man to ‘man up’. I just have to look like I’m tough on the outside but turn into a helpless baby the second I get sick or someone disagrees with me. But what I’m saying—“

“What?” Lance interrupted her. “You’re a  _ girl _ ?” He eyed her oddly. “ _ How _ ?”

Pidge cringed a little bit at that. Allura huffed and said, “It’s a choice anyone can make no matter the circumstances,  _ Lance _ .” She smiled warmly at Pidge. “Remember when I wanted to talk to you during the party? That was actually what I was getting at.”

The shorter of the two blinked her eyes a couple times before she laughed. “So you actually  _ did _ want to talk about nuts. Just not like I did.” Allura looked  _ incredibly _ confused by that.

Hunk laughed loudly. “I knew for a while.” He wasn’t going to admit that it was when he snooped in her journals before they even left Earth.

“You know I knew,” Keith said with a shrug.

“Wait, we were supposed to think you were a boy?” Coran asked, and Keith rolled his eyes. Coran  _ definitely _ thought Pidge was a guy. At least he knew how to save face, unlike some people.

“Pidge,” Shiro smiled at her, “owning who you are is going to make you a better Paladin. Whatever you want us to call you, we will. He, she, they. Pidge, Katie. Anything at all.”

Relief passed over her features, and her shoulders relaxed. “Thank you! It’s good to get that off my chest.” She perked up a bit in genuine excitement. “Now let’s get this castleship ready to fly! I’ll help however I can!” She bounded towards the door, and everyone started following her.

“Wait,  _ what _ ?” Lance exclaimed, clearly very confused. “Pidge is a girl? Who’s  _ Katie _ ? The castle is a ship?” He blinked his eyes wildly. “How long have I been out?”

Keith paused at the door and then looked back at him. He glared and said, “Guess we forgot about you.”

He turned and left through the door, nearly running into Shiro, who stayed behind. Allura walked a little bit behind Coran, Pidge, and Hunk, her head tilted back to listen to them.

“Keith,” Shiro said slowly. “Are you—“

“Fine,” he snapped, crossing his arms in front of him again. Something sickly and hot rose up inside him, like magma burning beneath his skin. “It’s no big deal. I’ll be on the training deck when it’s time to leave.” He brushed by Shiro, storming away.

He knew that Lance would forget, he even said so. Yet, Keith foolishly let himself believe that he could trust Lance. That he could reach out to him. That the whole thing mattered. How  _ stupid _ was he?

“It doesn’t matter,” Keith muttered to himself. “It  _ never _ does.”

…

_ Laughter echoed through the castle as a young toddler of only 40-years-old climbed up the strange plant before her. She’d never seen anything quite like it before. On Altea, everything was flat with flowers and fields. _

_ “Princess! Come down before you injure yourself!” She looked down and met Coran’s eyes. A grin spread across her lips as she dared to each up a little higher. _

_ She reached up, and gasped when her foot slid out from under her. She fell, her scream echoed through the air. _

_ Allura didn’t hit the ground though. Instead, she fell into a pair of arms. Her savior stumbled a bit, and they both tumbled onto the ground without injury. _

_ “Your Highness! Are you both alright?” Coran asked as he hurried over to them. _

_ “Allura, are you okay?” Her mother’s calm words reached her ears, and the young girl instantly relaxed. She leaned back and smiled when her gaze met her mother’s magenta eyes. Relief passed over Queen Melanor’s face, and she pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You have to be careful. You’re an adventurer through and through, aren’t you, my little juniberry?” _

_ The Princess giggled and hugged her mother. They all jumped when an alarmed voice called out to them. “Melanor? Are you alright?” _

_ “I’m fine,” Melanor assured Alfor as he hurried to their side. _

_ “I climbed that plant!” Allura cried out and pointed to it. “I climbed high but then I fell and Mama caught me.” _

_ Alfor looked surprised for a moment, but when Melanor coughed, his expression darkened. “Allura, you are the future Queen of Altea. You cannot go climbing trees. It’s not proper of a Princess. ” _

_ The young girl straightened her shoulders at his stern words. If her father said it, it absolutely had to be true. She was going to be a Queen, and that was important. “Yes Father. I’m sorry.” _

_ He nodded his head. “Come now, I have a new book for you to read. Coran, perhaps you could go ahead with her?” Her eyes lit up at the thought of a new book. Maybe this one was about another world, or maybe it was about alchemy! Her father did alchemy and it was amazing! _

_ Her parents lagged behind a bit as Coran led her back to the castle. She looked over her shoulder at them, noting both their frowns. Her mother looked almost angry about something. _

_ Allura was a bit sad that she couldn’t explore more. She loved to run around and play. She loved to read and learn though too, and that was what a princess was supposed to do, so it was okay. _

_ She’d have fun with that too. _

Allura was antsy. While she knew how to operate the castle, how to fix it should it need to be fixed (she always loved studying Altean alchemy), it exhausted her to listen to Hunk and Pidge ask Coran questions. Yes, she loved that they were so interested in Altean technology, proud almost, but the constant scientific chatter was a bit…much for her at times.

She wasn’t used to  _ not _ doing something. Not used to having idle hands.

A part of her wanted to go to the AI room and talk with her father about all of the recent developments, about everything that happened when the castle was attacked. Perhaps he could help her work through her thought process so that she wouldn’t make decisions that would lead to such a disastrous outcome again.

Except, she really didn’t want to. She didn’t want to see the disappointment on his face when her father learned that she let two Galra and a handful of sentries incapacitate them so badly. Not to mention she almost lost two of her Paladins.

No, she couldn’t face her father just yet. She had nothing to offer to get the castle ready to go at this point.

Somehow, Allura found herself gravitating towards the training deck. Coran sent both Lance  _ and _ Shiro to lay down for a little bit, since people were usually exhausted after they came out of them, and she doubted Shiro slept much the night before.

While she had no intentions to talk to Lance, a conversation with Shiro would probably be nice. He was very level headed and intelligent. She didn’t quite feel like  _ talking _ right now though.

That was why she decided that she wanted to seek out Keith. She didn’t quite get why, since he was one of the Paladins most outwardly critical of her. There was actually something nice about that though; something nice about someone  _ not _ playing nice.

She peered into the training room, watching Keith use his bayard to spar with the training Gladiator. At first, she had to wonder why his bayard took the form of such a…delicate-looking sword. She watched him for only a moment, hands clasped in front of her, to see why it actually fit. When he trained with the others, he was a bit more stationary, more apt to listen to Shiro’s orders, but on his own he seemed much more agile.

Keith didn’t at all stay still. He twisted and twirled out of the way of the Gladiator, and followed that up with an impressive jump and slash. It was almost like watching a dance (albeit, a dangerous, very violent one), and the thinner blade made sense with his movements.

He suddenly looked over in her direction, a bit taken back to see her. The Gladiator took the opportunity to kick him in the chest, and Keith crumpled to the floor.

“End Training Sequence!” Allura called out, and ran over to him. She fell to her knees beside him as the Gladiator shut down. “Are you okay?”

“Peachy,” Keith wheezed out, and tried to push himself up, but then flopped back onto the floor.

Allura eyed him warily. “Do you need to go to the med bay?”  _ Please _ don’t tell her she distracted one of her Paladins enough to put him in a healing pod.

She was more than a little relieved when Keith shook his head. “I’m fine. Just lemme catch my breath.”

“Alright.” That was an acceptable request. She looked towards the Gladiator, noting the deep gashes on it. “That was quite impressive. What level are you working at?”

“This was my first round,” Keith admitted as he finally managed to sit up. “I think I started at five?”

Allura blinked at that, and her eyebrows shot up as her head whipped around towards him. “ _ Five _ ?”

“Yes?”

Was he  _ insane _ ? “Keith, you cracked waldabrun!” She sent him the single most unimpressed look that she could manage. “After I assessed human physiology, I set the systems so that you had to start with one and work your way up! Not five!” Allura hoped that she came across as angry as she wanted.

Apparently she didn’t, because Keith blinked at her and asked, “What’s a waldabrun?” He sounded so confused that it took her back for a moment.

“A fruit with a shell so hard that you need at least a talinzite blade to cut it open.” She regarded him curiously. “You don’t have those on Earth?”

Keith slowly shook his head. “No.”

“Oh.” She paused, not quite sure how to reply to that. “I suppose that’s good. They’re putrid.” She really disliked them a lot, no matter how nutritious they were.

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Did you just call me a cracked, putrid, fruit?”

Allura stared at him, and he stared back at her. “Anyway, I came looking for you because I was wondering if I could, perhaps, join you in training?” She twisted her hands in front of her, and turned her attention to anywhere but him. “Coran doesn’t need my help and I…well…there’s not really much else I want to do right now?”

“Me? You want to spend time with  _ me _ ?” He sounded so confused, that she  _ had _ to look at him. He looked just as perplexed as he sounded.

Her expression softened. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re one of my Paladins. There are very few people in this castle.” She tapped her fingers against her thigh. “And you…you’re like me, in a sense.”

That was exactly what it was, wasn’t it? Beyond her certainty that Keith had Altean heritage. She noticed it when they were separated from the others the day prior. She felt safe when she interacted with him, like he was a familiar figure in her life.

She felt almost  _ shy _ about the entire thing now that she thought about it. Her entire life, she had family, she had subjects, she had allies, she had acquaintances.

She couldn’t remember ever having a friend. After his interactions with Lance earlier, Allura felt that Keith felt just as alone as she did (Shiro aside).

“I’m gay!” Keith blurted out in an almost panicked tone.

“What?” She wasn’t quite sure what that term meant exactly. It was definitely from his human language since it didn’t translate to something in Altean.

He started to ramble, which was actually quite funny. “I like guys and only guys? I think? I might be ace too, but I’m gay!”

Allura  _ laughed _ . Ah okay, that’s what it meant. She couldn’t help herself. Her shoulders shook as she laughed in genuine amusement. “I devised that from how flustered you were with Lance last night.” Another series of giggles escaped her when he groaned at the reminder of their ‘bonding moment’. They were so sweet together last night. Allura could understand why Keith was hurt by Lance’s reaction.

As her laughter subsided, she wiped tears that appeared at the edge of her eyes and had half a thought to ask him if he was okay. Except, Keith seemed like a fairly closed-off individual, and she wouldn’t want to talk about being scorned like that either.

Instead, she pushed herself to her feet, “Are you okay to spar?” She held her hand out to him.

Relief washed over Keith’s features, and he nodded. “Yeah.” He took her hand and didn’t protest at all as she helped him to his feet. “You any good?”

She shrugged nonchalantly. “I have trained with a few different things. Hand to hand. Long ranged weapons. Short ranged weapons. You know, to broaden my horizons.”

“Just a few.” He looked bemused by this. “Wait, do Alteans have any weird thing like super strength or something?”

She laughed again. It felt good to laugh. “Well, we are strong, but not unreasonably so. Though we do have moments of super strength fuelled by adrenaline. Fight or flight, you know?” Allura eyed him briefly. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah.” He nodded his head, and slipped into a confident stance. “Hand to hand first?”

A grin appeared on her face. “Yes.”

…

The fingers on Shiro’s left hand twitched as pain seized up through the muscle. He kept a straight face so that no one else would catch on that something was wrong. He cast a glance over at Keith, glad that he didn’t start to hover around him like a worried mother hen (seriously, Shiro was the older one, he should be the one to do that). He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts.

A part of Shiro, a small part, kind of wanted to shake Lance. He couldn’t understand just how rare it was for Keith to reach out like that. How much it must have meant. At the same time though, it wasn’t like he could make them be friends or anything, and if he tried to meddle, things could get very messy very quickly.

He flexed his fingers again and frowned. On Earth, his medication didn’t make his dystrophy go away, but it did help manage it. Whatever the Galra did to him temporarily made his muscles stronger, though it seemed like after a while, it started to make them worse. He wasn’t sure  _ why _ that happened, but he could practically feel it. Maybe he could talk to Coran to see if there was any way to make things more manageable. 

His eyes briefly turned to Keith again. He definitely wasn’t ready for what Shiro would have to ask him to do. That was going to be a conversation as far in the future as he could put it off.

Allura walked to the controls in the center of the room and turned to face them, her expression stern. “Paladins. Today we depart Arus for the most important mission you will ever be given: To save the universe from Zarkon’s control.” She motioned to the seats that were set out for all of them. “Are you ready?”

Hunk was the first one to head to his seat, his face focused. “We need to go help Shay and the other Balmerans!”

The others all settled into their own seats until only Shiro was left standing. He met Allura’s gaze, able to see the concern in her eyes before she nodded at the last place.

The chairs were oddly comfortable, though he wasn’t quite sure what to make of the interface before him. It was only thanks to the helmet he was wearing that any translations popped up at all. They’d have to come up with some kind of solution for that.

Behind them, Allura and Coran went back and forth with what sounded like absolute nonsense to him.

"Activate interlock.”

"Dynotherms connected."

"Mega-thrusters are go."

Lance chuckled. “Mega-thrusters.”

Shiro’s lips ticked up slightly, but he shook his head and let out a sigh. Lance really reminded him of another ridiculous boy at about the same age.

_ “You were supposed to start the thrusters there, Takashi.” _

_ “Heh, thrusters.”  _

_ “If we fail our team flight because of you I’m going to replace all your favourite songs with It’s A Small World but with those song titles and you’ll never know when it’s coming.” _

_   
_ _ “What the hell, Adam? That’s just mean!” _

_ “So is goofing off when the rest of us are trying to work our asses off. We all don’t have talent like you. So maybe be mature for once.” _

Shiro broke out of his memory as Coran said, “We are ready to depart Arus on your mark, Princess."

Allura was silent for a moment, likely to scan everything herself, before she said, "Firing main engines for launch."

The entire castle shook beneath them, and they lifted off into the air. It was the oddest feeling. There were no extreme g-forces like with even the most advanced ships from Earth. Not only that, but as they reached the atmosphere of the planet, Shiro felt a rush of energy pass through him. He felt the castleship tilt only slightly before everything was righted again.

“And we’re on our way!” Coran cried out cheerfully.

“Wait, is this thing  _ horizontal _ now?” Pidge asked, a projection of the castle in front of her. Even from where he was sitting, Shiro could tell that it looked more like a ship than a castle now, like the entire thing tilted ninety degrees. “I didn’t even notice and everything here looks exactly the same! What the heck?”

“Altean technology is actually quite fascinating,” Coran explained to her. “I’m no alchemist, but you see…”

Shiro ignored the rest of his explanation, since half of it didn’t make sense anyway. He only knew as much about engineering as he had to for emergencies. Instead, he focused on the dazzling array of stars before them. Stars that seemed to blur as the ship soared forward until they couldn’t see them at all.

He looked from one person to the next. This was it. They were taking the fight to the Galra. They were going to defeat them and free the universe.

Shiro’s fingers twitched again slightly as the muscles seized.

…

Haggar stood at her Emperor’s side, her eyes focused on the commander that bowed before them. She wasn’t quite sure what Prorok wanted when he arrogantly requested an audience with the Emperor and herself. There was much to be done, and she had little time to deal with inconsequential beings like him. Not with the recent breakthrough of one of her most important experiments. One that could alter the destiny of the Galra Empire forever.

“Sire,” Prorok said, still in his deep bow, “if capturing Voltron is the Empire's number-one priority, then I suggest we begin moving the main fleet toward its last known location posthaste."

She stared down at the man before she spoke in a calm tone. "Lord, after many years, the Komar Experiment is finally ready. Soon, we could have more Quintessence at our fingertips than ever imagined. We must test it before moving the fleet."

"We don't have time for any more of your magic. We must move our ships now,” Prorok argued with her as he rose to his feet.

He stared at her with distaste, but that was of no surprise to Haggar. She knew of what the Galra Generals thought of her and her loyal druids. It was of little consequence to her though. In fact, let them be suspicious of her. Let them doubt.

"Voltron is the most powerful weapon ever created,” she said to the commander as if he were but a cub. To someone like her, he was. He was not one of the original loyalists that her Emperor had from the beginning. He could not possibly understand exactly what they were dealing with. To him, Voltron was but a legend. She turned her attention to the Emperor. “His puny ships will never be up to the task. We must be well prepared for our next encounter."

"I know better than anyone the power of Voltron,” the Emperor said. “It must not be underestimated. Every advantage we can have must be explored. Haggar has my trust. We will perform her test."

The Emperor slammed his hand down onto his throne, and Prorok knelt down at his feet again.

Good. That was where he belonged.

There was something to be said about vermin though. They often crept through the shadows and thought they were entirely unnoticed. Well, to many they went unnoticed, but not to Haggar. She had a million eyes at her disposal.

That was how she overheard Prorok’s orders to his underling. "The witch has his ear. Keep sending our offer out to any scum between Planet Arus and Balmera X-95-Vox. I'll capture Voltron on my own."

Haggar chose not to alert Zarkon. There was still a bit of use in Prorok for now. She was always looking for more subjects to experiment on.

…

“So, like, what did you guys do while I was out? Aside from saying ‘hey we’re going to shock Lance with a billion things at once’, cause that definitely happened.”

Pidge looked up at Lance, who leaned over the back of her chair. Amusement crept through her as she said, “Wait until you see the  _ other _ things we planned to shock you with.” She laughed at the sound he made, like a balloon that rapidly deflated. “Shiro had to go in a pod for a while too, but he came out way before you. What was that like anyway?”

The healing pods were fascinating, and Pidge was so curious about them. She didn’t understand how they worked, but she wanted to know everything about it.

Lance blinked, as if he wasn’t expecting the question. After a moment, he shrugged and said, “I was asleep, but then slowly started to wake up. It got really cold, but then the pod opened and I just kind of stumbled out. Weird, right?” He waved his hands in a circle. “Cause I was asleep. But yeah, I was tired. Hungry. Cold. A bit confused.”

“Huh,” Pidge muttered, and moved so that she sat cross-legged. “Fascinating. I wonder if the pod affects people differently. I wasn’t awake when Shiro woke up. Maybe I’ll ask him to compare. Anyway, most of us helped get the ship in working order. Except for Keith. For someone who maintained their own hoverbike, he’s useless with stuff around the castle. Instead, he stayed outside your pod like a loyal little guard dog.” She snorted at that.

Lance looked a little dumbstruck. “Huh?”

She grinned impishly at him. “Oh yeah. I mean, I thought he wanted to punch you in the face for being all over him. It was kind of gross. But  _ apparently _ not, since you had a  _ bonding moment _ .” Thinking back to Keith’s expression, and the way his voice cracked, was hilarious. If he was serious, it might have been sad, but this was  _ Keith _ and he wasn’t exactly a complicated person to figure out. “Gayest thing ever, to be honest.”

Lance bristled. “I’m not gay.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being gay, or bi, or whatever,” Pidge assured him, because she didn’t mean to come across that way at all. She would never judge someone for that.

“I am  _ not _ gay, Pidge,” Lance snapped at her.

She leaned back from him. “Chill out, Lance.” She shoved him away a bit. “You’re not gay. I get it. Jeez.” She looked at him. “We all know you’re pining over the Princess, who’s been hanging out with Keith a lot too, so there’s that.”

Just as she predicted, his hostility towards her vanished and turned towards someone else. “Oh,  _ really _ ?” Was he  _ actually _ trying to feign disinterest?

“You’re so transparent,” Pidge said with a laugh as she turned back to look at the schematics in front of her.

“As transparent as the entire ocean, maybe,” Lance replied. “You think you can see through it, but can you? No, you can’t.”

“You’re about as deep as a kiddie pool, Lance,” Pidge noted as she looked over the schematics in front of her.

“Whatever,” Lance huffed, moving away from her chair. “I’m going to go somewhere where I’m more appreciated. Hunk!”

Pidge rolled her eyes as he walked away to go bother Hunk instead. “Ridiculous.” She focused entirely on the information about the castle in front of her. People were strange, but things like rotating a whole castle from a vertical orientation to a horizontal one without anyone noticing were amazing.

Despite bad guys fighting them, Pidge was so happy she ended up in space.

…

Hunk stretched his arms out above him before he dropped them back to his sides. For a brief moment, he wondered why the armour on his arm didn’t really make any kind of sound when it hit his chest armour, but decided not to question it for right now. Altean materials were amazing, and he’d have to look into it later.

He returned to his steady pacing back and forth. Wasn’t the castle like a bajillion times faster than the pod? Shouldn’t they be at the Balmera already?

Objectively, Hunk  _ knew _ that he and Coran travelled for hours when they went to the Balmera. Or was it phoebs? Altean time confused him a lot. The only one he could remember was ticks! Why couldn’t they just use seconds like normal people? Outside of the fact that ticks existed a lot earlier than seconds did. Also time was completely subjective. 

Everyone just stood around and talked, theorizing about the types of planets that they might come across in the future. And sure, that  _ was _ a fascinating topic, and any other day he’d like to join in on it, but that wasn’t what they should be discussing now. There were more important things.

They  _ knew _ of people that needed help. Knew where they were and what kind of environment they lived in, and how they were suffering.

So no, he didn’t really care to think about the fact that maybe xenomorphs are real,  _ Lance _ .

“We should be talking about the Balmera!” Hunk interrupted as he clapped his hands together. Everyone else looked up towards him from where they were standing and lounging around on the stairs. “So, when we get there, what do you think? Do we just roll up and like, start blasting? Or do we land and have some kind of public address system? Like, 'Attention, Galras. This is Voltron. Turn yourselves in!' Or something like that? What do you think?” He looked around at everyone else. “Nah. We’re going with blasting, right?”

Keith pushed himself off the wall and held his hands up towards Hunk, waving them slightly. “Hunk, calm down.” He paused and regarded him. “And yes, blasting.”

“No blasting,” Shiro said, and gave Keith’s arm a swat. “And it’s our first big rescue mission. Hunk’s allowed to be excited.”

Pidge giggled and tipped her head back so that she was looking at him upside down. “Excited to see his new  _ girlfriend _ .”

Hunk spluttered for a moment, glad that it was fairly difficult to see when he was blushing. “She’s not my girlfriend! She's just a rock that I met and I admire very much." And really, what wasn’t there to admire about Shay? She lived her life underground, and she could have ended up like Rax, but she chose to believe in Hunk. If she could fight, well, Hunk didn’t have a good reason not to, right?

Also, he was only  _ seventeen _ . No way in heck he was ready for any kind of relationship. No siree, that wasn’t the life for him right now. He really didn’t get Lance’s want to be in a relationship, especially after the whole Jenny Shaybon incident. It was strange to think about, and definitely not what he wanted.

Lance looked like he was about to say something when an alarm began blaring around them. Shiro straightened immediately and looked to Allura. “Are we being attacked?”

“No.” She shook her head and waved her hand—the screech of the alarm coming to an end. “It seems to be a distress beacon. It's coming from a nearby moon.” Her eyes scanned the information that popped up in front of her. “Apparently, a ship has lost power."

“Huh, I wonder who it is,” Pidge muttered.

Hunk crossed his arms in front of him. "Whoever it is will have to wait. Shay has first priority. We can check back on them when we're done." Really, a ship without power sucked. Hunk really hoped that he never had to deal with a powerless ship in the middle of space, or worse, being tossed into space with no ship! Those people probably did need their help, but it wasn’t bad and they needed to prioritize, right?

"The Paladin Code states that we must help all those in need,” Allura said, unimpressed. “We will help the Balmerans, but we can’t leave these people without aid.”

Hunk grumbled angrily. “Sure, why not. Take the person with a paper cut before a person who lost a limb. Why not.” Okay, maybe he was a tad bitter.

Lance didn’t share his pessimism though. In fact, he seemed to be almost making a show of how excited he was. "Wow! This is so cool. It's like we're space cops on space patrol.” He turned around to face Coran. “Do we have a siren we can turn on?"

“Uh, no.” Coran shook his head, and perked up a bit. “But we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that to them."

“Perfect!” Lance said, and without missing a beat, he started to mimic the sound of a siren. Or tried to, at least.

Shiro quickly put a hand over his mouth to block out the sound, his eye twitching slightly. “Nope. Not doing that.” Coran looked bemused, Pidge snickered, and both Keith and Allura rolled their eyes. Hunk could only glower though.

They really didn’t have time for this.

…

Hunk was not pleased, to say the least. On the moon before them was a huge ship that could probably house one of their lions (who were pretty damn big on their own). It was weird as heck that a ship like that wouldn’t have things within to repair it, should something happen.

Even the Garrison ships basically had an entire second ship in them in parts for a crew to use if they needed them. Part of Hunk’s job at the beginning of simulations was literally to check that everything was there, since there was more to those than just the actual flying part.

This crew had to be absolute disasters to not be prepared for the worst. Especially since there were Galra around.

Everyone was sitting in their individual seats again as Allura scanned the area around them to make sure that there were no ships hidden behind the vast asteroid field that was nearby. It was actually pretty strange to see so many close together like that, since even being in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter didn’t guarantee an astronaut would actually see one since they were so far apart. Something like a moon or another giant asteroid probably broke up there.

Again, it was one of those things that Hunk would love to take the time to study and figure out, but there was no time for that. They had more important things to do. Things that no one else seemed all too worried about. Not even Coran! Hunk at least thought Coran would be on his side about getting to the Balmera as quickly as possible.

“There doesn’t seem to be any other ships nearby,” the man spoke up. “No trap in sight.”

“Good,” Allura replied before she hit a few buttons. "Attention, damaged craft, this is Princess Allura. We are coming to assist you."

Hunk honestly wasn’t too impressed with how eager the others were to get off of the ship. He kind of hoped that Shiro, who seemed like a very reasonable person, would help keep this little pit stop short, but then Allura told Coran to stay on the ship to keep clearing the energy the Galra generated from their own crystal. On a normal day, that actually would have been fascinating. Today, he just didn’t care, and all he could feel was despair when Shiro declared that he was going to stay behind with Coran.

“They will want to see all of Voltron,” Allura protested with a frown.

“We won’t always all be around to show off to people as a complete collection,” Keith said as he crossed his arms in front of him. He eyed Shiro warily before his attention turned back to the Princess. “Leave him be.”

Allura looked  _ furious _ for a second before she turned to walk towards the door. Hunk was quick to follow her, because he wanted to get this over with and get to Shay, who  _ actually _ needed them.

Despite the look she gave him a moment ago, Keith caught up with Allura and muttered, “You saw his scans, Allura. He’s not always okay even if it seems like he is.”

The Princess faltered in her steps for a moment, before she nodded her head in understanding.

Hunk frowned at that, not sure what Keith was talking about at all. His curious nature made him want to know. There would be plenty of time for that later once they helped these people and got on their way.

They were greeted by two humanoid-aliens and a robot.

The first was a tall, male alien with purple skin and strands of white hair falling over his eyes. Hunk frowned at him, taking note of the bandages that he wore either for an injury, or just because. He didn’t know how aliens worked. He was tall, slim, and muscled.

The second was shorter, with yellow skin and unnervingly large purple eyes. He wasn’t quite sure where her skin ended and her hair began, but she wore a headpiece, and there were strands that seemed to fall around her head like pigtails of sorts. She wore a crop top, and Hunk had to wonder how these aliens functioned like this on a moon. Sure, the suit indicated that there was an atmosphere, but it was _cold_ and neither one of them seemed bothered in the least.

Hunk didn’t like to judge people at first sight. It was something he experienced time and time again, whether it be from his skin colour or his size. That said, he really didn’t like these two, something really didn’t sit right.

"You don't know how glad we are to see some friendly faces,” the male alien said as he stepped forward. “Most folks don't want to get tangled up with anyone who's on the run from the Galra."

"So, you guys are fighting the Galra?" Keith asked curiously. Hunk shot him a look, because why didn’t  _ he _ sound wary at all? He was ready to throw down with Kalizap, and the Arusians were adorable! These two—three if you included the robot—were probably way more dangerous. Also, why did they have such a massive ship if there were only three of them? What did they need it for?

"Well, I don't think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us,” the man said, and flashed a smile in Keith’s direction. “We do what we can though. I'm Rolo. This is Nyma, and our cyber-unit, Beezer."

“Hi,” Nyma added with a wave of her hand.

Pidge and Lance both gasped. Pidge was suddenly right in front of Beezer. Her eyes were wide and they positively glittered. “Cool robot!”

Lance, on the other hand, sauntered over to Nyma and took her hand in his, his voice dropping slightly, “Hi. Name’s Lance.”

Keith crossed his arms and rolled his eyes before he looked back to Rolo. “How was your ship damaged?”

Yes, thank you Keith, get them back on track. Hunk eyed the ship, unable to see anything actually wrong with it.

“We’ve really been through it with the Galra. Parts are hard to come by. Luckily, we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn't pick up our distress signal, I don’t know how long we would have lasted for,” Rolo said and maintained eye contact with Keith the entire time.

Hunk frowned. How did the Galra damage the ship? There were no external damages at all to it. Though he supposed they could have been outrunning them and something broke inside.

“We're happy to help. I am Princess Allura of Altea, and from now on, you won't be alone fighting the Galra. You'll have the Paladins of Voltron by your side,” Allura introduced them all. Rolo glanced from them over to Lance and Pidge, who still fawned over Nyma and Beezer respectively.

The alien frowned. “I’ve never heard of Altea.”

“It has been 5,000 years,” Keith admitted.

“What about Voltron?” Lance asked, apparently still able to tune in to their conversation. “Five robot lions that combine into this big…robot…guy?” He motioned his hands and then winked at Nyma, who giggled.

“Sounds impressive,” Rolo said, and Hunk was instantly on alert. “I'd love to see it. Him? Them?"

Why was that his initial reaction? If Zarkon wanted people to fear Voltron for when he got his hands on the lions (not that he would), he would have made sure the stories struck terror into people. Otherwise, he would have erased any mention of Voltron away like he apparently had done to Altea. Rolo was acting like it was no big deal to hear about five robot lions that transformed into a bigger one.

Either their tech was even more advanced, or something wasn’t right here. Every instinct Hunk had was screaming that it was the latter. There was no way this ship was more advanced than the castleship. "Why don't we just get to work on your ship? I'm sure we all have places to be,” Hunk said quickly. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Luckily, Rolo nodded his head. "Pretty much our whole flaxum assembly is shot. I don't know what kind of extra parts you carry in this rig of yours. I've never seen anything quite like it." He motioned to the castleship.

"I'm sure we can get you back up and running,” Allura noted as she clapped her hands together. “Hunk is our engineering expert, so you can give him a list of what you need. I’m fairly familiar with where everything is around the castle, so I can help you find it.”

On one hand, Hunk was flattered that a space princess was calling him an engineering expert. He’d gone back and forth over the past few years about wanting to be a chef or an engineer, and still wasn’t entirely sure despite the fact that he was in school on a career path to be an aerospace engineer.

On the other hand, Hunk didn’t like that Allura volunteered him to do this. Oh well, it meant that he could make sure it was done quickly.

He broke out of his thoughts when Rolo tried to go towards the castle, quick to step in front of him. "Uh, I don't think so. You can just wait out here." He pointed at the ground and then crossed his arms as he awaited the challenge. He would not be moved on this point though.

“Hunk!” Allura snapped at him with a scowl. “Don’t be rude.”

“Yeah, mind your manners,” Lance added, and grinned at Nyma again. “There are ladies present.” He winked at her, and she giggled.

Did no one else really get what was wrong? He cast a glance around, and saw that Pidge was still enthralled with the robot, and Keith glanced up and down Rolo. Wait, what the  _ heck _ ? Did he actually just  _ check him out _ ? Lance, he expected that from, but Keith?

Seriously? That was why no one backed him up?

"Oh, I'm sorry,” Hunk snapped sarcastically. “Does no one remember the last time we let our defenses down? Someone kind of set off a bomb. Remember, Lance? You were almost killed. Like, yesterday.”

Lance’s shoulders slumped, and he looked almost ashamed. Good. “Oh, yeah…”

Keith sighed. “If Shiro was here he’d remind us that we need to be cautious.”

Rolo turned to Keith and said, "Hey, I don't take it personal. That's how it is out here. You've got to look out for your own.” He met Hunk’s gaze, not at all intimidated. He didn’t much like that. “You're doing a good job, big man."

Hunk was fine when Keith called him big man. He didn’t have these icky instincts around him. When Rolo said it though, it made him actually want to hit him. Seriously, how was he the only one who got bad vibes? He wished Shiro was here to back him up.

Or at least control Lance, who needed to stop flirting.

Rolo handed him a list of parts that Beezer printed off of him. It was a strange material. Not paper or silk or anything like that, but at the same time, it kind of reminded him of paper. Weird. “I’ll find the stuff you need. Wait here.”

He stormed back to the castle, determined to get the parts so they could get out of there. They needed to save Shay and the Balmerans, and he needed to save his friends from their stupid hormones.

…

Coran stared at the scans projected in front of him, his eyes focused on the different colours that ran across the screen. He was absolutely mind boggled. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.”

Shiro quirked up an eyebrow as he sat up from where he laid in the pod to be scanned. “Really? There’s no muscular dystrophy on Altea?” He turned his eyes to the scan with more interest than Coran expected. If he had something like this plaguing his body, he wouldn’t want to see it at all.

When Shiro volunteered to stay back, Coran knew that he wanted something. Allura expressed that there was something wrong with their Black Paladin, but he couldn’t have imagined this. “No,” he answered. “You see, we have—had—the technology to detect anomalies in infants and to fix it. Of course external viruses still occur, as do infections and other things, but nothing like this.” He frowned heavily. “ Our pods couldn't do a thing for it, even though they already had your scans from when you entered the castle. ” They were supposed to be able to fix any injury, but this wasn’t an injury, was it? The pods weren’t exactly helpful for the Slipperies or anything like that.

“I figured as much,” Shiro admitted. “That’s a technology they’re still refining on Earth—it got set back a bit after the war. If we have that, I’m not surprised that Alteans did.”

“I don’t understand,” Coran admitted as he looked from the scans, to Shiro, and back. “You don’t seem shocked at all about this.”

“I was diagnosed at a young age,” he explained patiently. “Even before then, I knew it was likely that I’d have this, since my father had it and passed the genetics down to me.” He frowned. “My father passed away when I was young, but he wanted to live the life he had to his fullest, and not let his disease be what defined him. I always appreciated that.”

“And your mother?” Outside of the desire to understand the situation more in general, Coran genuinely wanted to know more about all of the Paladins.

Shiro smiled wistfully. “Both of my parents were amazing people. My father’s disease took him in the end, but he taught me to keep going through the pain. He actually met my mother in a hospital. She was a doctor that worked with viruses and other diseases to try and find cures for them. She never took ‘no’ as an answer, and always tried to find a new way to do things. She worked to help find a cure for a virus that hit pretty hard when I was young, but unfortunately, she got sick from it before they could actually synthesize enough.” He shook his head. “She had one vial of it for herself, it’s all she could get since the people with money got it first, and she gave it to me as a preventative.”

Coran inhaled sharply, and his heart went out to the Paladin. He was young, still so very young despite being the eldest of the Paladins (which made Coran want to shield every single one of them). “I am  _ so _ sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you,” Shiro answered with a genuine nod. He was likely used to that. He turned his attention back to the scans. “You know, on Earth, I had a fiancé.” He held up a finger before Coran could get too excited about that. “But I chose to go to space, because I wanted to be the first human to travel so far. I wanted to do everything I possibly could before my illness took me. I only had a few years left.” He met Coran’s eyes with a grim expression. “I  _ still _ only have a few years left at most. I just…don’t know what the Galra did to me.”

It was one thing to have a disease slowly wearing away the body, but another thing altogether to know how the Galra experimented on him. Honestly, the  _ best _ case scenario was that it was a Galra drug, but the worst case scenario, the one Coran believed, was much, much worse. Things always got finicky when magic was introduced.

“Without any scans prior to your capture, all I can do is speculate,” Coran admitted. “First, there is one thing I’m curious about. Is white hair like you have common for your species?”

Shiro’s flesh hand reached up to touch his fringe with a frown. “No. Not for my age, at least, and not for my family. The elderly have white hair, and in some scenarios, younger people do too, but not me. A year ago I had all black hair. I don’t remember how this happened, if I’m honest.” He looked very put out by that, not that Coran could blame him.

Coran nodded his head in understanding. “Alteans are a colourful bunch. We don’t have hair that’s black or brown like you humans seem to prefer. We have orange and red and blue and nearly every bright colour you can imagine.” He paused as he took a small cube out of his pocket and projected an image of three people standing together, a mother, father, and their small child. “Except for the royal family.”

Shiro’s eyes scanned the projection. “They all have white hair.”

“They do.” Coran smiled down at the picture and pointed at the woman dressed in golds and pinks. Pink was the colour of mourning in Altea, so everyone was quite taken back when the Crown Princess decided that it would be the colour she primarily wore, not the cyans and blues that were common for royalty.

_ ‘I’m mourning the loss of intelligence in the court,’ she said with her chin raised high. _

Coran’s family long served the royal family in many different capacities, and as such, he grew up with Princess—and then Queen—Melenor. As much as Allura strived to be like her father, she reminded Coran more of her mother with a bit more of a temper. She actually sent him to spy on an up and coming alchemist that a lot of people whispered about as a prodigy. Who later became her husband. It was quite the story.

Though her hair was the same white, Melenor’s skin was several shades darker than Allura’s, her eyes vibrant magenta. Though Allura’s eyes and skin tones were from Alfor, the default structure of her face and appearance were so, so much like her mother’s.

So much to the point where Alfor couldn’t even look at his daughter after his wife passed. Though they could fix genetic anomalies in infants, as well as biological defects, disease was still something that could strike any Altean. The Queen was an example of that.

“Queen Melenor was the one born into the royal family. Like Allura, she was born with white hair. King Alfor was the one that married into the family. When he was younger, he had a hideous head of green hair. Truly awful.” 

“His hair looks pretty white there,” Shiro pointed out.

Coran laughed. “Yes. You see, when someone marries into the family, the marriage rites have a component where the bride or groom, whichever they may be, must be introduced to powerful quintessence. It guarantees that the next heir born will naturally have powerful quintessence. Hence the white hair. Exposure to an extreme amount of quintessence—be it by birth or in another way—bleaches the pigmentation in hair in most cases. I suppose there are likely exceptions, perhaps an Altean-human hybrid, or someone with even more muddled genetics. At any rate, a friend of Alfor’s…once a brilliant woman who was perhaps the only person who could claim to be his equal in alchemic knowledge, once had her hair go from light purple to white due to quintessence exposure. She died from it.”

That wasn’t the entire story though, was it? She lived for just a little while after that. He could still hear a baby’s cries for his mother who would never answer. Could still see those white locks of hair and that pale lavender skin. Another being that they failed.

Coran was grateful when Shiro spoke again and drew him out of his thoughts. “You think that they did something to me with quintessence.”

He nodded his head. “Galra cannot harness or use it naturally, but Zarkon’s witch might have. If they wanted to use you as this…Champion, it would seem as if they experimented to figure out how to cure you. For no gain but their own.”

“But it didn’t,” Shiro pointed out.

“No.” He frowned for a moment. “I’d say it helped you. Like bulking up and made it manageable, but as soon as you were away from the spells, it made everything worse. They likely wanted you to be dependent on them.”

“I’d rather die,” Shiro insisted vehemently, metal fist curling. “It does feel worse than when I was on Earth. It feels like it’s rapidly moving through and overtaking me.” He scowled fiercely. “If they think that prolonging my life to fight for them is going to make me grateful enough to come crawling back to them now that I’m dying faster without it, they have another thing coming.”

A wave of sudden sickness overtook Coran at the revelation of what all this truly meant. The scans didn’t show that Shiro was just in pain.They showed that he was  _ actively dying _ . “So it would seem. Perhaps there’s a way to cure it if we look.”

“Cures don’t come overnight,” Shiro insisted. “What I want is a way to manage it. No cure comes without a price—without a struggle, and I don’t want that. I don’t want to be stuck in a bed hooked up to a medicine pump while I still have some fight left in me. It would be nice to have something that could help take the edge off the symptoms for now though.”

His heart beat fiercely in his chest. “You’re the Black Paladin.”

“I am,” he agreed. “And I need to help and make sure that someone else can step up to take my place after I’m gone.”

Coran thought back to Alfor  _ pleading _ with the Black Lion to open up. To choose another Paladin, only to be met with silence. “It won’t be that easy. You don’t get to choose that. When the last Black Paladin died, Black fell silent and did not choose anyone else until you.”

Shiro hummed thoughtfully at that, his eyes drifting upwards a bit. “I have a feeling it’ll be okay. That he can see the plan that I have in my head, that he can see what it is I see. I think we’ll be okay. I just need the ability to keep going for now.”

Coran had his doubts, but who was he to question what the lions wanted or thought? Alfor always said that they held many secrets, and was fairly vague with exactly  _ how _ they had any kind of sentience to them. No other Altean technology had that.

If the Black Lion did communicate with Shiro, he had no choice but to trust him for now. It wasn’t just that though. If this was what Shiro wanted, Shiro who probably knew more about the illness affecting his body than anyone else, who was he to defy his choices? To tell him that he was wrong? “If that  _ is _ what you want, I will certainly help you try to figure out something to, as you put it, take the edge off.” He frowned and placed a hand on his shoulder. “However, will you permiss an old man to see if there is a more permanent solution? A side project, so to speak?”

Coran was not about to invalidate Shiro’s decision, but it was so unfair. Shiro was so painfully young and vibrant. He didn’t deserve what the systems were projecting would happen.

At first, the Altean thought that Shiro’s stunned silence was in a form of anger, that he overstepped his boundaries, but then a full-blown smile appeared on his face. “I would like that a lot. I could help you with it in my down time. It would be nice to at least help to find something that may help people like me in the future.”

“Of course!” Coran agreed eagerly. It would be nice to spend some time with the Black Paladin. He thought about the fact that Shiro lost both his parents young. About the fact that the people he worked for strapped him onto a table when he fell to Earth (or so the Paladins said). Perhaps Shiro needed someone older to talk to at times, someone he could lean on.

Shiro may have been an adult by human standards, but he was still young. The others were still children, even if the boys were all on the verge of adulthood (and Keith claimed to be an adult by Earth standards but Coran really questioned Earth standards in that regard). They needed someone, and Coran could absolutely be that someone for them.

“You head out with the others,” Coran instructed Shiro after he got up and the scans were put away. He had no intention to tell anyone else about this. Not even Allura. She might know that he was sick, but Coran doubted she knew how bad it actually was.

“I can actually help you like I said I would,” Shiro insisted.

Coran waved a hand. “Nonsense. I’m glad you took the opportunity to talk to me so we can figure something out, but now it’s time for you to go with the others.”

“Are you—“

“Shoo!” He waved his hands at him.

A smile cracked across Shiro’s lips and he nodded his head. “Alright. And Coran? Thank you.”

“Anytime, my boy,” he assured him. “Any time.”

…

Despite the fact that his muscles were stiff and sore, Shiro still felt a little bit lighter. He forgot how freeing it could be when he actually discussed his problems with others. It was something he preached all time, but he was honestly a bit of a hypocrite. Adam and Keith both liked to call him out on that a lot. He was sure the other Paladins wouldn’t hesitate to do the same.

He met Hunk on the way out, and his smile fell when he saw the scowl on the young man’s face. He had a cart of parts with him, likely for the ship they stopped to help, but he didn’t know why he looked so  _ angry _ .

Hunk’s sudden desire to help these aliens, his pure insistence on it, genuinely startled Shiro some. Hunk had been ready to bail, so whatever happened on the Balmera had to be really bad. So he could understand why he wanted to go back and was so frustrated with their stop.

Reality was, the universe didn’t know who Voltron was, or wouldn’t have a good opinion on it. They needed to change that in any way that they could, which did include the occasional stop to help stranded people.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh thank god,” Hunk mumbled, though he didn’t stop. “This is a disaster. You’ll see when we get out there.”

“Oh…kay…” Shiro said slowly, and followed him outside.

Nothing seemed out of sorts at first. Everyone seemed to be gathered in a circle of supplies, part of the ship opened up to reveal the engine. Then he saw Lance, who was flirting with the female alien worse than anything Shiro had ever seen before. Did that boy have  _ no _ shame at all?

Then he saw it. He saw the way Lance looked away from the girl and towards Keith, and when the other boy glanced their way, he started flirting even more.

Keith, in turn, immediately turned his attention to the male alien, and, oh no, Shiro knew  _ exactly _ what was going on. He’d seen that before. The way Keith’s eyes would linger with a subtle smile on his lips. What he wasn’t too familiar with was the way he engaged with this alien. He wasn’t used to that flirty tone of voice at all.

Shiro almost laughed when he saw Keith’s eyes dart to Lance before back to the alien. This was just  _ pathetic _ . This was some sort of version of a rebound. At least Keith’s version. He knew his brother, and knew he wasn’t going to do anything stupid. They’d taken a lot of soul searching together for Keith to tentatively decide that, though gay, he was likely ace, or possibly demi. He wasn’t entirely sure, which was fine. It wasn’t like he was going to go off and do inappropriate things with an alien they just met.

Lance, on the other hand…well…Shiro didn’t know him enough to judge realistically. Lance was a flirt though, and if he was trying to draw attention to his flirtations for whatever reason.

Shiro suddenly really wanted to sleep. He walked by Lance just in time to hear the beginning of what was going to be a very inappropriate comment, and promptly smacked his head. Lance protested with a whine, but Shiro ignored it. He had a helmet, he was fine.

He caught sight of Pidge  _ meditating _ on top of a robot, who looked like it was also meditating. He decided not to touch that one with a ten-foot pole.

“Hey Shiro,” Keith said, his attention instantly shifted from the alien.

“Coran kicked me out,” he said before anyone could ask. “I don’t think he trusts me enough with the alien tech.”

Allura laughed at that and shook her head. “This is Rolo, and his crew Nyma and Beezer.” She clasped her hands together in front of her. “Rolo just told us about how the Galra destroyed his planet and he was taken captive.”

Rolo nodded his head. “I managed to escape, but not before I lost something.” He motioned to his prosthetic leg.

Sympathy rushed through Shiro as he held onto his own arm. “I know exactly how that feels.” He didn’t want to think about the arm. He didn’t want to think about how it was this foreign piece of machinery that was attached to him without his permission. It worked as well as any other arm anyway, sometimes even better, when he didn’t let himself think about it.

“Oh! I forgot to introduce you properly. Rolo, this is Shiro, the Black Paladin and the leader of Voltron.”

Rolo’s eyebrows shot up and he glanced at Keith. “I thought…well…anyway. Nice to meet you.” He held out his hand, and Shiro was about to shake it, but he froze. Purple skin. Purple hand. No, no this man wasn’t a Galra. He needed to push through that.

Before he could, Hunk stopped the hovercart beside the ship. "Well, I hope there are some parts in here that'll fit." Shiro raised an eyebrow as Rolo ignored him, and that seemed to rile up Hunk even more. “You know, to get your ship moving? The reason we stopped here in the first place.”

“Right! Thanks!”

Allura shifted closer to him. "So, what can you tell us about Zarkon's forces? Where are they concentrated?" Huh, a bit of recon. That was smart of her. They knew nothing about the Galra’s movements at this time.

"Well,” Rolo said thoughtfully, “his command ship sits right in the center of the Empire. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do the work, depending on who's closest. This is the territory of a real nasty bugger named Sendak. Rumour has it that he’s Zarkon’s second in command. His right hand."

“Oh, we’ve met,” Keith toned in sarcastically, a scowl on his face as his eyes focused on Lance for a moment, moved to Shiro, and then back to Rolo. “Not a fan.”

"How far are we from the center?" Surely the Galra would keep their home base there.

“Keistungz?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Keys-toon-gs,” Rolo pronounced slowly. “It’s what they call the Galra homeworld.”

“The homeworld of the Galra was Daibazaal, and it was destroyed 5,000 years ago,” Allura said, both confused and a little put off.

“Well that makes sense. Keistungz is an artificial world. It’s basically a spaceship the size of a planet that sits in orbit there.”

“They created an artificial  _ world _ ?” Pidge burst out, instantly distracted from Beezer. “Like with biomes and everything?”

Rolo shrugged. “There are Galra stationed on most worlds too, but from what I understand, that’s where the bulk of the population is, especially the mothers and children. Seems like a bad idea until you realize how fortified it is.”

“What about the elderly?” Pidge wondered.

Rolo snorted. “There’s no such thing. They survive battles until they don’t. They also tend to use the hybrids as cannon fodder, from what I’ve heard. That makes sense too, because they’re kind of terrifying. Most hybrids don’t even look Galra. They look like the other parent.”

“So you could be around someone who’s half-Galra and not know?” Keith wondered.

“I think I’d know. They’re pretty awful beasts.” Rolo looked at Keith. “And I’m sure there are none here, so there’s no need to worry.” His eyes widened. “I didn’t answer your question. We’re actually on the fringes of Galra controlled territory, but it grows with every movement.”

“Have you heard of any other kind of freedom fighters? An organized resistance to the Galra?” Shiro wondered. If they could find allies like that, it would make their lives so much easier. If they were only on the fringes of Galra territory, then he could only imagine how much worse things were in the middle. Not to mention they were only one small group. To liberate planets properly, they were going to need a lot of help.

“I’ve heard whispers of rebels,” Rolo admitted. “I’ve never met ‘em though. Some folks who haven’t been colonized, some who were lucky and got away like me.”

“Well, we’re going to change all that,” Keith spoke with pure conviction, and why shouldn’t he? For as long as Shiro had known him, when Keith set a goal in his sights, he eventually got it. Sometimes in super unconventional ways that had people (re: him and Adam) shaking their heads, but that was part of what made him work. He was going to dedicate himself to this or die trying.

Shiro would protest that mentality, but that was his way of thinking too. They could be disasters together.

Rolo once again turned his attention to Keith, a smile on his face as he put a hand on his shoulder. "That's good to hear, but I've got to warn you, it's pretty bad out there. You don't know what you're up against."

Shiro did  _ not _ like the way he looked at his brother. He definitely caught onto Keith’s interest, even if Keith didn’t realize that. So it was a bit of a blessing when Hunk popped up and gave Rolo a stern look. “Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I think you guys are kind of keeping Rolo from working. It's just that we're in a hurry. A hero named Shay saved my life, and I swore I would return to do the same for her and her people. You understand."

“Sure, sorry.” Rolo placed a hand on Hunk’s shoulder and walked over to inspect everything he brought.

“We’re going to get going soon,” Shiro assured Hunk. “I just think Rolo might have some information that could be helpful to us."

"Not for nothin' but I don't trust this guy as far as I can throw him. I think we ought to leave him with the box parts and just say, 'Adiós, amigo—'"

"Hey, bud! Sorry, but do you think you could hunt down a length of thermal pipe about yay long?" Rolo interrupted, and gestured for the length he needed.

Hunk groaned. “On the way!” He stormed away, none-too pleased with the situation.

“Hey guys,” Pidge spoke up as she once again made herself comfortable with Beezer—apparently her new best friend. “Has  _ anyone _ seen Lance?”

Shiro, Allura, and Keith all looked around to see that Lance and Nyma vanished. Keith crossed his arms in front of him and scowled, Allura groaned, and Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose.

He needed to get baby leashes for everyone, didn’t he?

…

Nyma, Lance decided, was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met. Sure, she wasn’t exactly human-passing like Allura was (and really, Allura was like  _ the _ pinnacle of beauty), but still gorgeous.

And it had absolutely  _ nothing _ to do with the fact that he found himself very distracted by violet eyes that he could seriously stare at all day. Nyma’s violet eyes, of course. No one else had violet eyes that stared at him in a way that made his heart squeeze painfully. Why would he be thinking of anyone else? Especially a guy. No, he was not thinking of a guy. He was thinking of  _ Nyma, _ and Allura, and Jenny Shaybon, even if the latter ripped his heart out and stepped on it. He was  _ straight _ . Luis was bi and married to Lisa. Veronica was bi with a preference for women. Marco was bi and an awful disaster. Rachel was bi and also she was Rachel so she sucked. He was different from all his siblings though. He was the unique one of the family.

He plastered a big grin onto his face and continued on with his explanation of Voltron. "I mean, there are only five of us in the entire universe, so... I guess you could say it's kind of a big deal."

She tilted her head slightly, and god if that wasn’t the cutest thing he’d seen since—nope, not doing that. "I don't understand. The Lions are ships? Are they, like, flying statues that you ride on?"

Flying statues? What the  _ cheese _ ? Still, he laughed happily. "No, no, no. They're magic, but also super scientific and advanced. And they fly crazy fast and have all these incredible weapons. Really, the entire Castle is just insane! I wish you could see it." Was he laying it on a little thick? Perhaps. Did he regret it? Not in the least.

“It’s too bad we’re not allowed inside,” Nyma said, full lips turning up into a pout. “I would love a tour from one of the knights.” She placed her hand on his arm, but sighed and looked away. “But I guess the big one is in charge, huh? You have to obey his orders?"

At first, Lance was confused. The big one? Shiro wasn’t even out when they first met. Oh, wait a second. “Hunk?” He snorted, because he wasn’t about to let her think that  _ Hunk _ was the boss of him.  _ He _ was the fighter pilot, not Hunk.

He didn’t play second fiddle to anyone, and he needed to make sure Nyma knew that. No to Hunk. Not to Pidge. Not to—

_ “I don’t like fighting with you. Sorry I’m a jerk sometimes. I always wanted to be your friend.” _

_ “We can be friends. I’m sorry too.” _

Lance straightened his shoulders. “I don’t have to listen to him.” They were on equal footing.

Literally.

They were both legs.

...

Okay,  _ maybe _ he shouldn’t have brought Nyma into the castle, but he couldn’t remember the last time someone willingly looped their arm through his and leaned on him this way. Willingly latched onto every word he said.

“This place is  _ incredible _ ,” she gushed excitedly as she looked around.

Pride welled up in his chest, even though he hadn’t done anything to warrant it. He didn’t want to come across as too cocky, there was a balance that needed to be struck, so he said, “I guess. You get used to it.”

“But it’s so gigantic!” She gasped, her eyes wide. “It must take you forever to get to your lion.”

Hunk and Pidge were still determined to find some better way to get to the lions, but for now all they could do was—oh.

Ooh.  _ That _ was an idea.

“Ooh, you’d be surprised.” He held his hand out to her, which she eagerly took, and headed towards the elevator that led to Blue.

This was going to be fun, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Nyma would have to cling to him. Nope. None at all.

It was a little tricky to jump from the zipline to the slide with a second person, but he managed to pull it off without any fumbling, which, honestly, Lance kind of wanted to cheer about that. Then he got to hold her close, and she sat on his lap in the speeder, so win-win.

The end result was that they wound up in Blue’s cockpit. Nyma took a seat in Blue’s chair, something that the lion actually wasn’t at all pleased with. Lance gently shushed her and patted the console as if that would pacify her. It didn’t.

Well, fine then. She could be that way. Lance took a step back and yelped as he tumbled down right onto Nyma’s lap. Well,  _ that _ was humiliating. She laughed it off though, the sound positively joyous. So he smirked and asked, "Pretty slick, right?"

"Unbelievable!” She said eagerly. “Take me on a ride around the moon?"

Lance didn’t need to feel Blue’s protest to know that it was probably a bad idea to take her out with a person he just met. “Uh…we should probably get back to the others."

Nyma was great and all, but he wasn’t  _ completely _ stupid. He knew he shouldn’t indulge her that way.

She sighed, and her shoulders slumped. “Yeah, you’re right.” A second later, she perked right back up. “Maybe  _ Keith _ will give me a ride.”

The image that very suddenly, and very rudely assaulted Lance’s brain made him cry out, “No!” All he could picture was Nyma sitting on Keith’s lap, that soft look that had been directed at Lance before, now suddenly focused on her. It  _ actually _ made his stomach twist with nausea. He was not about to let  _ that _ happen. “Whoah, whoah, hold on a second! I mean what's the point of having the lion if you can't enjoy her, right? Giddy-up, buddy!"

Blue didn’t move. He could feel the frustration pulsing through her, and mentally pleaded with her to fly. He needed this. He needed some time to flirt and be silly without any stakes over his head. Without those genuinely heartfelt looks that he always wanted, but wasn’t at all ready to get, from someone.

She wasn’t at all happy, but Blue acquiesced his request, and the controls turned on. Lance grinned at Nyma one last time before they took off towards the sky.

…

There was life thrumming through the planet below her. Animals on the ground and in the oceans. Primitive lifeforms that slowly, over time, might have evolved into a sprawling civilization.

Haggar would have to send someone down to see how the native creatures handled the Komar, if there was anything left at all.

It was obvious that living things had quintessence in them. It was quite literally the gift of life. What most failed to realize was the sheer amount of quintessence that lay within the worlds themselves. Some planets were mined for minerals and other resources, but many were mined for the quintessence that ran within them.

She stood on a platform raised over the windows at the bottom of the ship. Four of her loyal Druids stood on their own spaces around her.

“Begin the ritual! Druids of the Four Directions, join us!"

The light was intense, the power that thrummed through her immeasurably. She had few experiences in her long lifetime of feeling this sheer amount of power flow around her. Yes, this was exactly what the Galra Empire needed.

Those who whispered behind her back were wrong. Her Komar Experiment was a success, as she knew it would be. An entire planet’s quintessence was a feat that normally would have taken years, and as the light died down, she managed to do it within doboshes.

Colonizing planets would be a thing of the past. They could pick off the planets that were of no use to them as they hunted down Voltron.

Haggar left the room to inform the Emperor of her discoveries. Yes, there was very little in their way that could stop them now. All that was left was Voltron and its Paladins.

She wondered how much quintessence their home world had. They’d have to find out.

…

“Look!” Nyma cried out excitedly from where she sat on Lance’s lap. “A kinetic spring! Let's land over there. The minerals reflect off the water, making a rainbow."

Lance had to admit, he was really curious about that. He flew Blue lower, just above the spring, and sure enough, the water that splashed up arched around them in glittering rainbows. It was  _ beautiful _ . “Wow, is there anything you don’t know?” He was self-aware enough to know that looks  _ did _ matter to him, but brains and a good personality were, of course, key to make things work and last. Not that he expected either of those things from Nyma. This was more like…a flirt-fling. A fling where all they did was flirt. Nothing else.

Nyma fiddled with her bracelet a bit, before beaming at him as they set down on the land beside the spring. He stretched his arms out above him as they both climbed out, awe rushing through him again. “This is amazing.”

“It  _ is _ ,” Nyma agreed, a sly grin on her face as she inched closer to him. “It’s the kind of place that makes you want to be close to someone.”

Oh, wow, she was getting kind of close. And it’s not like he could take his helmet off or anything, so like, what was up with that?

A sudden nervousness overtook Lance, and he blurted out, “Wanna see how fast I can climb this tree?"

_ Smooth _ as gravel, Lancey-Lance.

Nyma giggled. “Aw, you  _ are _ cute. Let me show you something.” She fluttered her lashes at him and lowered her voice slightly. “Give me your hand."

Lance tried not to show how nervous he was as he held up his hand. The next thing he knew, his world spun around as something was clasped to his wrists, and then around the tree. Were these  _ handcuffs _ ?

His face went bright red. Now, Lance didn’t  _ mind _ being tied up, he really, really didn’t, but like, not in this kind of situation! “Uh…this is…kind of…”

The dirt kicked up around them, and Lance looked up to see the ship that they stopped to fix hover above them. Confusion rushed through him, and his stomach dropped as the ship opened. Blue’s particle barrier rose around her as she was lifted up inside.

Panic exploded in him. “Nyma! Nyma what the hell?”

“Sorry, Lance.” A rope of sorts was tossed down to her, and she grabbed onto it as it lifted back to the ship. “Maybe we’ll meet again.”

Lance watched in utter horror as the ship rose up higher and higher. Oh  _ god _ he was stupid. So,  _ so _ stupid. This was exactly what happened with the castle. They let their guard down and someone took advantage of it. Just, this time, it was really his fault.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Lance muttered to himself wildly as he struggled with the handcuffs. They didn’t budge an inch. What should he do? He groaned and flopped his head to the ground. A part of him wanted and felt like he deserved the sharp sting that would have come from the small impact if he wasn’t wearing his helmet but—

“Oh quiznak.” His mind screeched to a halt. Dear sweet Santa, he was  _ stupid _ . He had his helmet on. Except the comms were off and he needed to touch his gauntlet to turn that back on.

“Mamá didn’t raise no quitter,” he mumbled to himself. He brought himself up into a kneeling position and then twisted his leg up awkwardly to tap against his gauntlet. It took him a few tries, his muscles screeching at him from the awkward movement, before he finally activated the comms. It was a good thing he was skinny with long limbs, and that he was flexible as hell. He needed to work on stretching more. Couldn’t let that flexibility go to waste.

“Guys?” he said, almost hesitant to talk to them, because he knew he screwed up. He knew he had to though. The longer he waited, the farther away they got with Blue. “Hello? A little help?”

“Lance?” Shiro asked, his voice worried. “What’s wrong?”

“Well,” he said hesitantly. “I’m kind of, sort of, maybe chained to a…tree?”

“I knew it!” Hunk burst out. “I knew something was sketchy! Where’s Nyma? Rolo took off in their ship for a test run a few minutes ago.”

“Yeah, about that. They sort of just stole the Blue Lion?” He squeezed his eyes shut as everyone started talking at once.

“What?” That was Allura. Oh quiznak, these were her father’s lions. She was going to  _ murder _ him.

“I knew it!” Hunk burst out again.

“Seriously?” There was Pidge.

“Where are they?” Shiro, always practical and to the point. Bless him.

“Are you okay?” Lance’s mind screeched to a halt at Keith’s question. The only one to actually ask if he was okay.

“I—well I’m not going anywhere right now. And they’re…in space?”

“I never trusted those guys,” Hunk insisted. “Right from the beginning I knew they were up to no good.”

Lance groaned. This was just like the time that Hunk warned him not to eat those nachos from the corner store or he’d get sick. He didn’t let him live that down for nearly a  _ week _ . He was an  _ awful _ winner.

And he couldn’t even turn off his helmet.

…

"I mean, y'know, at first, it was just like a feeling in my gut, you know? But when I was replacing that thermal pipe, the pipe was cracked, but none of the hardware around it was damaged."

Keith knew he wasn’t exactly the best at reading people. He pegged Hunk as, well, basically a sunshine child. Someone who was just purely  _ good _ . Turns out, he was so very, painfully wrong.

From the moment they found out that Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer were up to no good, he hadn’t stopped. All he did was brag, and brag, and oh, did Keith mention that he  _ bragged _ a lot? If they weren’t on the way to their individual lions, he might have absolutely lost his shit.

"Okay, we get it!" he groaned as he urged Red out of her hangar. He could feel her amusement rush over him. Okay,  _ maybe _ he was a bit embarrassed over the fact that he hadn’t caught onto the fact that they should have been suspicious. He was always wary of people.

It wasn’t  _ his _ fault that he was hurting, and that Rolo was all legs and showed off his muscles. All he wanted to do was look. And it didn’t help that Lance was being so aggressively flirty with Nyma after everything he said to him before.

"I mean, if the thermal pipe is cracked, then, obviously, hello, the entire assembly should be totally roasted,” Hunk continued.

"Okay! We get it,” Keith hissed through gritted teeth.

"We should've had to replace the entire undercarriage of that reactor. So, right then, I was, like, positive. Foul play."

Oh my  _ god _ . Keith was ready to pitch a childish fit. He would do it. He wouldn’t be proud of it, but dammit if he wouldn’t do it.

“We get it!” Pidge and Shiro both yelled along with him. Was that Allura he heard over the comms? He hoped it was. All of them should be annoyed right now.

They soared up through the moon’s atmosphere, and if he was honest, a part of Keith expected to see nothing at all. They had a pretty good head start, and some form of warp-drives were definitely one of those things that would give them more of an advantage.

Except, he  _ could _ still see the ship in the distance.

“Shouldn’t they be farther away?” Pidge asked as they soared after the ship.

“I didn’t exactly give them the best parts to use,” Hunk admitted.

Note to self, Keith thought warily, don’t mess with an angry, petty Hunk.

The ship swerved suddenly, sliding into the narrow gap of the asteroid field that was around them. "We'll never get through this!” Pidge groaned as the lions came to a halt on the edge of it.

Hunk said something about being able to bust through it, but it didn’t really help, just caused some asteroids to bounce into one another. This was actually kind of fascinating, because asteroid belts didn’t normally look like this. The asteroids were usually fairly far apart, just in the same orbit.

“Nope. That was wrong. That was a bad idea." Hunk noted almost hysterically at this point.

"Keith,” Shiro spoke up. “You're the only one who could possibly fly through this. We need you, buddy. Get in there and flush him out."

Keith thought back to all the simulations that they did back in the Garrison. How the first one he did at all—the day he met Shiro—showed a course awfully similar to this.

He thought of Lance, chained to a tree, lion stolen, and ire welled up within him. Just because Lance hurt him didn’t mean that he deserved this. His eyes slid from one spot to another in the field. Confidence built within him. He could do this.

_ “Yes,” _ Red thought in agreement.

"You got it. See you on the other side." With that, he urged Red forward. 

She positively  _ thrilled _ in the chase. They swerved around, over, and under asteroids that flew at them. Keith’s heart pounded with excitement as they flew at positively breakneck speeds. This was one of the reasons he loved to fly so much. The adrenaline rush.

“Gotcha,” Keith muttered as the ship came into sight. A blast from a laser flew at them, which they dodged easily. “Wanna play that way, huh?” Red opened her mouth, and responded with her own laser. It slammed into the weapons first, and he sent a second blast into their engines.

Red landed on top of the ship, and her claws sunk down into the metal as she forced the ship out of the asteroid field (and maybe he hit a couple extra asteroids to rough up their ship on purpose). The other lions hovered in front of them.

Pure joy rushed through him at the victory, and he couldn’t stop himself from letting out a happy little whoop. “Hey Lance, I got your lion back.”

“Thank you, Keith,” he replied. The way Lance said his name, with so much fondness, instantly made his heart leap a bit. He couldn’t help but smile at how relieved he sounded. How did this goofball get himself into bad situations like this?

At least he wasn’t  _ injured _ this time.

“Now, can you come and unchain me?" Lance asked.

Red let go of the ship as the other lions surrounded it. Keith looked down at them, before leisurely guiding Red back towards the moon. "What's that? I, uh...y—you're cutting out. I can't—I can't hear you." Was this petty of him? Probably. Did he care? Not at all.

"Oh, come on! I thought we bonded. Keith? Buddy? My man?"

He turned off the comms so no one could hear him laugh.

…

Lance pouted as he stared down at the ground in front of him. What kind of  _ moon _ was this anyway? It looked way more like a planet. Though he guessed that it did orbit an actual planet, so that made sense. It was just weird. He also had a lot of time to contemplate the ground.

No matter what position he twisted himself into, his back ached horribly. Were they just going to leave him here as a punishment for being an idiot? He supposed that he deserved that. He especially didn’t deserve  _ Keith _ of all people to help him.

Maybe he acted like a little bit of a complete douche to him that morning. This could be punishment for that too.

The sound of engines caught his attention, which prompted Lance to look up. His eyes went wide and his heart skipped a beat as he watched Red land several meters away. She lowered her head and opened her jaw to let Keith out.

Lance watched silently as Keith came towards him, raising a curious eyebrow as he took in the entire scene. Humiliation rushed through him, because he knew how bad this looked.

Keith squatted down beside him. “How did this even happen?”

Lance groaned and wiggled his hands. “Shut up and get me out.”

“Oh no.” Keith leaned back a bit, lips curled up at the edges just slightly. “This is way too good.”

“Okay, fine!” Lance burst out. “So she asked to land so we could look at the lake and then she got touchy and I asked if she wanted to watch me climb a tree and she handcuffed me. Without permission!”

He waited for the inevitable torment that he was about to receive, but it never came. He cast a glance to Keith, who seemed more perplexed than anything.

“The fact that she handcuffed you without permission is what bugs you most?” he asked incredulously.

What the— _ that _ was what he got from that? “Consent is important, Keith!”

It was those words, not the situation, that caused Keith to toss his head back and laugh hard. Lance couldn’t remember  _ ever _ hearing that before, not even back in the Garrison. He had a really nice laugh.

Keith’s bayard appeared in his hand, and small snickers escaped his lips. “You sure you want me to cut these then? Seems to me like you’re pretty interested in them.”

_ There _ it was. There was the teasing. Though, all Lance could do was blush at the tone of voice he used. Why did he have to let it drop like that? All suggestively! What the heck? “Oh my  _ god,  _ shut up.”

Luckily, Keith didn’t just get up and leave him. He cut through the bindings, and Lance was finally free to sit up properly. He grimaced at the tug to his back muscles as they straightened. “Thanks. Fucking ow.”

Keith’s expression softened at that, to the exact same look as when Lance was hurt before. Lance did know that look, it made his heart spike dangerously. It was far too dangerous a look. It also didn’t help that Keith asked, “Hey, are you okay?”

The words were so genuine, that Lance didn’t have it in him to be sarcastic. “Yeah. A bit sore. Uh, thanks again. Especially after, you know…I was kind of an ass earlier.”

Smooth Lance. Smooth.

Keith stared at him briefly, before he stood. “Come on, let’s get going. If we take too long, Hunk might get smug on us again.”

Lance wasn’t quite sure if this was a win on his part, but hey, Keith wasn’t sending him death glares anymore, and this was a safe enough topic. He’d take it. Also, he had feelings about this topic. “That’s actually the worst. He just brags and brags.”

“It’s awful,” Keith agreed as they walked towards Red.

He looked at the lion, and though her eyes weren’t glowing, Lance felt like she was staring into his very soul. It was a bit weird to feel someone else’s lion, but if Keith could sense Blue in the desert, there was no reason he shouldn’t be able to sense Red now. “Hey, you should let me fly Red.”

“Not likely,” Keith scoffed.

“Aw, come on. It’d be fun! I’d be a great Red Paladin!”

Keith snorted.

“I would be,” Lance insisted. Wasn’t the Red Paladin supposed to be like second-in-command or whatever? He could do that!

“You can be Red the day I’m Black,” Keith snipped sarcastically. He very clearly had zero faith in that scenario ever happening. Not that Lance could blame him. Keith was many things, but a good leader was not one of them.

He might as well have said ‘when hell freezes over’ or something.

He followed him into the lion, protesting the entire time.

…

Hunk moved through the castle, which was thankfully back on track towards the Balmera. He was going to find Lance, but his friend actively tried to avoid him. Probably for good reason. There was someone else he wanted to hunt down.

He found him sitting in the lounge with Allura, both dressed in their plain clothes again (though was Allura’s dress really considered plain). The mice rested along the back of the couch behind them. He didn’t really care if he was about to interrupt something, he just stormed forward. “Keith! What the heck, man?”

“Uhh…” Keith looked up at him, confused.

“Lance, I get! He’s Lance!” He took a seat on the couch across from them and eyed the tablet that was in front of them. It looked like there was some kind of Altean script on it. “But you were the one suspicious over the cuddly little Arusians, but nooo, two aliens and a robot who just happen to be on a moon and need help and are acting suspect? You let that slip? Because you were checking out the dude! Not to out you or anything, but come on, Rolo wasn’t even that good looking!”

It occurred to him a moment later that maybe this wasn’t something that they should discuss in front of Allura. She was a  _ princess _ , after all. Surely she had more important things to do.

“What are you talking about?” Keith insisted, suddenly defensive. “He was hot! Did you see him?”

That was not a sentence Hunk  _ ever _ expected to hear him say, but he was even more surprised at what came next.

“I admit,” Allura added, tilting her head slightly, “he actually was rather attractive for his species.”

So apparently Allura was actually willing to gossip with them? What was Hunk even supposed to  _ do _ with that?

“C’mon Keith! I expect that from Lance, not you,” Hunk groaned.

Panic seemed to overtake the normally stoic teenager, and he spluttered, “I just…he had really nice legs, alright?”

Legs?  _ Really _ ?

Allura’s eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. She stared at Keith in shock for a second before she burst into laughter. She laughed so hard that her entire body shook and she slumped over, head on Keith’s shoulder. “Oh my  _ ancients _ .”

Keith groaned. “Come on, it’s not like I took him in my lion or anything!” He momentarily looked quite put-off with that thought, though Hunk had no idea why.

He wasn’t having any of that though. “No, just made goo goo eyes and probably thought about kissing him.”

Whatever thoughts were plaguing Keith instantly went away. He made a disgusted face as he looked to Hunk. “Ew,  _ no _ . He was fun to look at, but that doesn’t mean I want to  _ touch _ him. Or anyone for that matter.”

Oh. Okay that actually made sense to Hunk. Despite the fact that Allura was leaning on his shoulder, Keith did not like physical affection. That made sense. He’d make sure to not impulsively give him hugs or throw his arms around him or anything. “Okay, that’s fair.”

Meanwhile, Allura was still laughing, spluttering on about legs. Keith’s face turned red, and he hissed at her to shut up, which seemed like an awfully rude thing to say to a princess, but she didn’t seem to care. That was pretty interesting.

“Okay,” he said slowly, “we have clearly lost Allura. Anyway, I’m pan, I get it, but Rolo was a toothpick! I guess some people might be into the lanky thing but come on, I trust you to be my suspicion partner.”

Keith’s fierce expression softened. “I’m sorry, alright? I’ll be suspicious with you next time.”

That was honestly what Hunk really wanted. He just wanted to know that others would actually listen to him if he felt that way again. He didn’t want anything to happen to any of them, and his instincts were pretty good when it came to people. “Thank you.” He glanced at Allura with concern. “Uh, are you okay?”

“Fantastic,” Allura choked out with a bit of a wheeze. “Goodness, we need to have conversations like this more often.” She shook her head slightly and smiled at Hunk. “And I promise that I’ll consider your opinion more next time, not just dismiss it. That was quite short sighted of me. I’ll make it up to you.”

Her words were so genuine, spoken without any stern authority or anything like that. It was more like the way someone spoke to a friend. It kind of hit Hunk then and there that Allura couldn’t be much older than they were. That maybe she wasn’t just a stern face. He’d have to talk to her more to see. There was something  _ else _ he had to do first. “You could make it up to me by telling me how to find Lance. I need to…talk to him.” More like growl at him over the fact that he really dismissed Hunk’s worries.

Then again, that was actually a pretty standard thing for Lance to do. That happened a lot at the Garrison.

“Oh! Ask Coran for the video feeds on the bridge. We also have thermal scans!”

That made a ton of sense. “That’s helpful! Thanks!” He turned to leave the room. He wanted to get this discussion over with as soon as possible.

...

Allura waited until the door slid shut behind Hunk before she rounded around on Keith. Given that she was going over the Altean alphabet with him, they were already quite close to one another, so it wasn’t like he could escape.

She didn’t get a word out before Keith pouted. “Shut up.”

“Oh gosh,” she giggled. “I suppose both Rolo and Lance do have long legs.”

“Allura,” Keith groaned, his cheeks pink.

She looked down at her fingernails. “I do find tall men attractive. Though I don’t get why you like them so bony when they could have muscle. Kind of like Shiro.” She pointed at Keith. “Now that’s attractive.”

His face twisted in disgust. “We’re not having this conversation about my brother! And he’s super gay. Worse than me gay.”

Was he? Huh, that was interesting. Allura shrugged it aside quickly. “Oh well. I guess I’ll have to keep looking.” Honestly, she just wanted to see Keith’s reaction, because they were usually hilarious.

It was a long, pretty embarrassing day where they had been tricked yet  _ again _ . Allura wanted to live and laugh a little bit at the ridiculousness of it all, and everyone else was so formal with her. The mice were her closest friends, and Keith clearly just saw her as a person, and not a princess. While relieving, Allura was sure that would come back to bite her at some point.

“Just go for someone who’s  _ not  _ 175 years younger than you,” he sassed back.

“It’s just age,” she replied quickly, ready for this kind of banter.

Keith groaned. “I swear to fuck.” He was about to say something else, but stopped at the curious noise she made.

They stared at one another briefly, before she asked, “What’s a fuck?”

Keith groaned again, and his head fell back, nearly onto the mice. They squeaked in protest, and Allura waited patiently.

She really wanted to know what that word meant.

…

Haggar watched the creature before her, beady eyes flickering this way and that. It wasn’t a particularly intelligent creature, but that was alright. She needed something that could move on instinct, something adaptable. Intelligence and free will weren’t exactly ideal.

She stared down at the canister of quintessence that was in her hand, from the new stock that they gathered during the Komar experiment.

Her yellow eyes flickered back to the animal. “This will turn you into the strongest, most horrifying fighter ever created. One that even Voltron will not be able to defeat."

After all, that had always been her goal, hadn’t it?

To find the one thing that could rip Voltron limb from limb and get at what was inside to destroy it for good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to keep the title because it's not just literal here. Many things are taking flight in this chapter! 
> 
> I hope everyone's doing well! The past few months have been rough in many different ways. I've been keeping busy with lots of different projects, though most of them don't have to do with writing unfortunately. If you want to check out my socials, specifically my IG, you'll see a couple things I've been up to!
> 
> All my socials:  
> [Tumblr](https://storiesbeyondthestars.tumblr.com/) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storiesbeyondthestars/) | [Twitter ](https://twitter.com/storiesbeyond1)
> 
> Let me know what you guys think of this chapter and the story in general!
> 
> Story betaed by: [Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon/pseuds/Silvamoon)


	10. Tears Of The Balmera

Allura stared down at the juniberry flowers beneath her. The flowers, the ground, the aqua sky, the hills in the distance all looked so much like home that it almost made her tear up, because she couldn’t feel the grass under her feet or the breeze in her hair. She couldn’t smell the sweetness of the juniberries. It wasn’t home, it was a trick, a figment of home that made her stomach twist.

It was all she had though, so she would cling to it as much as possible. So she sat with her father in the fake field of flowers, aware that the only thing she could feel was the metal floor beneath her knees.

She came every day to talk to him after she woke. She told him about the Paladins, about Arus, about how they nearly lost the castle. About the fact that they had Sendak locked down in the sleep chamber.

“Sendak,” Alfor muttered when he heard the name. “I remember him. He was a ward of Zarkon’s. Before he met Honerva, Zarkon trained and raised him, and it was believed that he might take over leadership of the Galra after Zarkon passed. The current Emperor’s son or chosen ward is always one of the frontrunners in a Kral Zera after all.”

“He was alive then as well?” Allura asked, her eyes wide. She didn’t remember that at all, but she was never privy to everything that happened during the war. “How is that possible?”

“You have him in a sleep pod,” Alfor noted. “Perhaps you should scan him to see if you can find something. It seems that you have some very bright Paladins with you.”

“A couple, yes.” Her shoulders slumped. “Though, I fear they will never be enough. They don’t have the same harmony and unity as you did.”

“Allura.” She glanced up at him when she heard that tone. It was the soft one he used when he would scold her as a preteen. “You must remember that we were all allies prior to Voltron. Where we were fortunate to bond over the course of decaphoebs, your paladins have only had vargas. After we formed Voltron, we faced many perilous situations, but nothing to the scale of which you face now. Our time together surpassed the entirety of a human lifespan, if the initial scans from the castle are to be believed.”

Allura bit her lip. She knew that. She truly did. It was just  _ frustrating _ . They didn’t have years to wait until they were properly trained. The universe was already so badly damaged. “Zarkon’s rule only becomes stronger. Already the memory of Altea has been wiped from some places, and Voltron is seen as a nightmare machine for him to control.”

She didn’t believe it at first, when they stood around and listened to Rolo while Lance was off with Nyma, and the alien admitted that he had no clue what Altea was, but he heard some stories about the ultimate weapon that was Voltron. It wasn’t right. Who were the Galra to destroy  _ her _ history? 

“As such is a common tactic in war,” her father answered her. “There are no opposing views if the victor wipes out those who oppose them. It is only when no memory of you remains that you truly perish.”

“It’s wrong!” Allura burst out and dropped the fake juniberry flower to the ground as she stood, hands balled into fists. “That just goes to show what kind of monsters the Galra truly are. Alteans would never do something like that.”

Alfor’s AI shook his head almost sadly. “Yes, we would. We have. Many times over. Perhaps not with the same type of violence as of recently, but is instilling our own beliefs and views on another culture and wiping theirs out any different?”

She pursed her lips at that. Surely that couldn’t be right, could it? Well, if her father said it, it was most likely true, but there was absolutely no way it was actually comparable to what the Galra were doing now. If her father was actually here, not just an AI, he would see and agree with her that the two things were very different. The AI didn’t have all the answers.

“Allura,” the AI asked, “have  _ you _ worked on bonding with your paladins as well?”

She blinked at the abrupt change of topic. Then pride rushed through her and she straightened her shoulders. “Of course. I have overseen and ensured that they do all of the traditional paladin exercises to strengthen their bonds.”

The illusion of Altea around her broke as the door opened, and Coran stepped inside. “Forgive me for interrupting, but we are entering the space close to the Balmera, Princess. We’re just waiting on you.”

“Yes, thank you, Coran.” She looked towards the projection and smiled. “I will talk to you later, father.”

Allura swiftly left the room, and kept her head high. She desperately wished that she could hug her father again, but all she had left was this living memory of him. It made something twist inside of her stomach, and the corner of her eyes burned slightly. She pushed that down, because there was no time to dwell on that. They had a mission to do.

Zarkon had already laid a dark mythology around Voltron, all so that those who he oppressed would fear it, and so he could claim it for himself. The mere thought made her want to rage.  They would change that. Voltron would become the symbol of hope that it was meant to be.

She would make sure of it.

...

Back in the AI room, Coran watched Allura go, before a frown appeared on his face.

“Allura is struggling,” Alfor muttered.

“She is,” he agreed, not looking at the AI. He couldn’t. “She is determined to win this war, even more than 5,000 years ago.”

“I don’t know what happened after we uploaded my memories,” Alfor admitted, though that didn’t surprise Coran at all, “but I know that I didn’t want this. I was sure that I’d be able to overcome Zarkon.”

“I remember,” Coran said with a somber nod. Alfor was confident, but a part of Coran knew that, when he said goodbye, that would be the end. Whatever it was that fuelled the Galra, that made Zarkon what it was, it was powerful like nothing he’d ever heard of before.

Alfor aged rapidly with the death of Melenor and the creation of Voltron. Coran remembered the whispers of Blaytz, Trigel and Gyrgan, how they were worried for Alfor. Alteans were a slow developing species. They spent nearly a hundred and eighty decaphoebs in childhood and adolescence, and even longer than that in adulthood. However, the stress made Alfor age much more quickly, it was unlike any Altean Coran had ever seen.

Well, outside of Honerva, of course. Those were two wildly different scenarios though.

The point was that Coran actually wasn’t surprised that Alfor lost. He had hoped against all hope that he would succeed, but with the plan to send the lions into hiding (which Coran found illogical, they were so powerful even without Voltron), he honestly had his doubts.

“I failed Allura and the rest of the Alteans, and the whole universe,” Alfor said mournfully. “I brought this war upon us.”

That startled him a bit. Coran frowned. “It was Zarkon who struck first when he destroyed his own colony on Marmora for protesting against him. Not to mention his second move before anyone could retaliate was to eliminate all life on the planets under Trigel’s rule. That was no fault of your own. And if you mean Daibazaal, there was nothing we could do to save it. You had no choice but to destroy it or that rift would have ripped apart time and space.”

“I was not referring to Daibazaal.” Coran blinked, not sure what to make of that. What else could he have meant? “We will worry about this later. I believe you have a Balmera to help.”  
  
For the first time in the conversation, Coran dared to look at the AI, and hid his grimace at the likeness to the man he once knew. There was something so eerie about speaking to something that once looked like someone he once knew but it wasn’t actually them. It wasn’t just that though. He wanted to protest, that they needed any bit of information that they could get, but Alfor was right. The AI wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and there were lives that needed them. For now, he chose to respect the memory of his old friend and let the whole thing go.

…

They were a far enough distance away from the Balmera that none of the technology on it should have been able to detect them, but still close enough to get read outs and scans. Space was so big and vast, and Alteans learned to create their technology accordingly.

Combined with the information gathered from the pod that Coran and Hunk took on their trip, they were able to get a very clear picture of the outside of the Balmera, and it was more than disheartening, to say the least.

Allura remembered the wide open fields of glittering crystals. Balmera were truly beautiful creatures that dazzled like small stars in space. This one looked nearly dead.

Her heart sank at that. Their first mission as Voltron (well, not counting Arus) was unlikely to end how she initially hoped. Even if they were able to free the Balmerans, there was little they could do for a creature in such a state.

It wasn’t that Allura didn’t  _ want _ to help, or was only thinking about Voltron’s image going forward. No, the thought of these people  _ suffering _ so much made her eyes prickle and her stomach twist. She would do anything and everything she could to help them. It was just that Balmera were particularly hearty creatures. They had to be in order to withstand space and generate their own atmosphere (though there were a few other large animals in space that could do the same). So any damage that was done to one to make it look this bad had to be absolutely awful.

Balmera were beautiful, and a part of Allura wanted to cry at the sight of one so destroyed.

She couldn’t let the Paladins see this though. No, she needed to remain strong. So she kept her gaze focused on the projection in front of them and said, "We'll be arriving at the Balmera soon. Liberating these Balmerans from Zarkon's grasp will not be easy."

"So, what's the plan? We go in there and just—Pow, pow, pow!" Lance put his hand in finger guns and proceeded to move them back and forth. “—And free the prisoners?”

Allura stared at him. What?

“What was that noise?” Keith asked, hand on his hip as he stared at Lance skeptically. Yes, thank you, Keith. That was  _ exactly _ what Allura was wondering too.

“Laser guns,” Lance replied with a smirk. He mirrored Keith’s pose unconsciously, and seemed quite proud of himself.

“No, Lance,” Hunk protested with a shake of his head. “I think you mean—“ A completely different sound came out of his mouth. “Pow!”

“That sounds like fireworks,” Lance argued with a shake of his own head.

"Technically, they're more like—“ Pidge put her hands together like one tiny gun, “Ba-choo! Ba-choo! Ba-choo!"

Allura was incredibly confounded at the moment. What was happening to her Paladins?

“Okay,” Shiro spoke up as he took a couple steps forward. “Enough with the bad sound effects.” Allura was  _ about _ to praise him when he suddenly sank to one knee and started to imitate shooting. “Besides, it’s more like blam! Blam! Blam!”

“What the fuck?” Keith whispered softly as the other three vehemently protested Shiro’s sound effects.

“What the fuck indeed,” Allura agreed, and that instantly made everyone else stop and stare at her with wide eyes. Then she recalled Keith’s explanation for the word, but if they could throw quiznak out so casually, she could say fuck.

“What is a fuck?” Coran wondered out loud, and Allura shot a sharp glare at all the Paladins. He didn’t know what it meant, which meant that  _ she _ was free to say that instead of quiznak. It was actually quite fun.

“Just a word to show confusion,” Keith answered quickly, and earned an extremely dirty look from Shiro.

“Anyway,” Hunk said loudly, drawing attention towards him. “We can’t just shoot at the Galra. The Balmera it’s, like, alive.” He looked up at the image floating in front of them. “And it doesn’t look too good.”

“It’s quite sick,” Coran agreed sadly. “I’d say verging on the end of its life. It's an atrocity what the Galra have been doing to this grand beast. Stealing its Crystals, its very life force, without ever performing the energy rejuvenation ceremonies to heal it." He shook his head.

“There’s a way to heal it?” Pidge asked curiously.

“From damage this badly? No,” he answered. “In the past, Alteans created a rejuvenation ritual after we took the crystal from the Balmera. It would heal the wound and also give back the energy to eventually grow more.”

“Alteans…created…are you sure some Alteans just didn’t land there and the Balmerans, you know, the ones who live on the Balmera, didn’t tell them how to do it?” Hunk asked, his brown eyes furrowed in confusion.

“Same thing.”

“…It’s really not.”

Shiro placed a hand on Hunk’s shoulder and got them all back on task. “We can’t go into the tunnels guns blazing. So we need a plan B. We need to get the Galra to the surface and fight them there.”

“They do have all that big mining equipment on the surface,” Hunk said thoughtfully. “If we attack them, they’ll come up to defend it. Then we beat them up, head down to the tunnels, and Voltron saves the day!”

“It’s a good start,” Shiro admitted with an appreciative nod. “We need to know how many tunnels are down there. If we leave behind even one group of Galra, things could get bad after we leave. We all saw what just two Galra did to us.”

Lance grimaced a little bit at that.

They all thought for a moment, and Allura’s mind rushed over all of the information and gadgets they had in the castle. Something rang a bell in her mind. There was an incident, when she was young, where some tunnels on Altea collapsed and her father had the rescuers use…something.

She perked up as the memory came back. “We can track the Galra and the Balmerans using Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology." She typed quickly and brought up the image of the tiny scanners.

“Oh, BLIP tech!” Pidge said excitedly, and Allura stared back blankly. What in the world? “It’s…an acronym?”

Why were her Paladins so strange? Allura dismissed that thought and faced the others. "One of you will need to fly around the Balmera and drop sensors into the shafts on each side. Then we'll be able to see where the Galra and the Balmerans are. There are sensors in your suits that we can use to keep track of you, and for you to keep track of one another.”

“Really? So we can spy on one another?” Lance asked and side-eyed Keith who shook his head in return.

“If I recall correctly, you can use thermal and other things to map out areas around other Paladins. Blaytz mentioned that once.” She was getting distracted again. “At any rate, we’ll be able to keep track of all of you.”

“I can take the BLIP tech,” Pidge volunteered as she raised her hand. “I just modified the Green Lion with the invisible maze's cloaking ability. I should be able to fly around unnoticed."

“I’m sorry, you  _ what _ ?” Allura’s eyebrows rose up sharply. She  _ modified _ the Green Lion? Not even Trigel had done that! The lions were her father’s creation, why would they need to be tweaked?

“What? Green seemed excited to do it,” Pidge replied defensively, as she crossed her arms in front of her and scowled. “She helped me, actually.”

“The past Paladins  _ never _ —“

“Yeah, well, maybe the past Paladins should have listened to their lions more,” Pidge snapped back.

Allura didn’t quite know how to respond to that, but thankfully Coran came to her rescue. He brought up one of the images they got from the pod earlier of a massive structure that stood out like a wicked wound on the surface of the Balmera. “That’s their main power generator. If you take that down, it will severely weaken their defenses.”

“Balmera are known for the atmospheres that they generate along with the crystals,” Allura added. “Compared to other species that do the same—there are several—they tend to be thicker and create gas atmospheres, so we should be able to use the clouds for cover and give tactical support.” A scowl passed over Allura’s features. “Unfortunately, we have yet to completely fix all our systems thanks to Sendak’s crystal. However they powered it, it wasn’t truly compatible with our technology.” It was actually highly likely that the castle would have blown up if Sendak tried to fly it too far.

So Zarkon wouldn’t have gotten Voltron, but the castle would have been gone along with the people inside of it. The lions likely would have scattered again.

“Right,” Shiro spoke up. “I’ll take out the power generator.” He motioned towards the other smaller structures. “Keith, Lance, Hunk, you take out these big mining rigs around the area. Keep the plan simple and straightforward. If anything happens, remember, this is a living creature and we have to be careful. Everyone ready?” They all nodded in response, Hunk most eager of all. “Alright, let’s suit up!”

Allura watched the Paladins go, and couldn’t help but feel a small wave of pride rush through her. This was what she pictured. Taking missions seriously. They were all soldiers now, and there really should be a bit of decorum to their actions. As time went on, they’d have to talk about that, for now though, she’d take what she had.

Her eyes turned back to the hologram of the Balmera, and she scowled. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to save the Balmera itself, but they’d do everything in their power to save the people that lived there.

…

Lance looked over his shoulder, staring at himself in the mirror as best as he could with a scowl on his face. Perhaps it was a bit conceited of him, but he was pretty proud of his looks, especially his skin. He never went through a horrible acne breakout like poor Hunk and a lot of other guys did. Veronica gave Marco, Rachel, and him loads of tips on how to save themselves from that fate. So yeah, he was pretty proud of himself.

Now, across his lower back, there were a few small scars where the Balmera crystal dug into him when it exploded, but that didn’t bother him too much. It was the splotchy, ugly skin that looked like a burn, that didn’t make sense to him at all. His suit was intact. The white armour barely had any blemishes on it, and Coran tossed the flexible black armour into another strange machine to repair it, but there were only a couple of holes, nothing that would have left a mark like that.

There was a knock on his door, and he distractedly called out for whoever it was to come in. He didn’t really care that the Kevlar-like armour was only to his waist. He assumed it was Hunk anyway.

“We’re waiting on—oh.” Lance flinched, because no, that was definitely not Hunk. He looked back properly to see Shiro, who stared at the reflection and the marks on his back with an oddly pinched expression.

“Sorry Shiro, I’m coming,” he said quickly.

“How are you doing?” Shiro asked him as he met his gaze. “I never really asked after everything that happened.”

“Right as rain! Only a few scratches on me,” Lance motioned towards his back. He glanced at it again in the mirror and tried to hide his grimace, but Shiro, apparently, saw it.

“Hey,” his voice softened, “it’s okay to not like them.” His flesh hand rose up and brushed against the jagged scar across the bridge of his nose. With something that bordered fascination, Lance watched Shiro’s face pinch. “You shouldn’t have that scar.”

Lance got the feeling that he wasn’t referring to the fact that his armour should have stopped it. “You shouldn’t have yours either.” Just because he was  _ younger _ didn’t mean that Shiro himself wasn’t young too. He was only 25. “Besides, I saved Coran when Rover exploded.” It was worth it. Lance would do it again in a heartbeat, because apparently Coran’s outfit at the time wasn’t made of the same type of flexible stuff as the suits they and Allura were wearing. Though he assured him that he updated it, even if it looked the exact same. Alteans were weird that way.

Shiro’s eyebrows both rose. “Rover? He was with Pidge when the explosion happened, and she was with the rest of us.” He groaned and shook his head. “Sendak likely noticed him, and used a second one. We need to be more mindful and careful.”

Lance nodded as he shoved his arms into his suit. He pinched the back of it together, watching over his shoulder as it sealed against him, designed to be airtight and pressurized apparently.

“Shiro? Why did I still get a burn? Aren’t these suits supposed to protect us?”

“I asked Coran that too when we saw the damage in your scans,” Shiro admitted. “He said something about calibrating the suits properly. They should be all fixed up now.”

He eyed his suit warily. He supposed that it had sat there for 5,000 years, waiting for a Paladin to come along and put it on.

“This is all real,” Lance muttered after he got the chest armour on. “I mean, I knew it was. I did. I knew war and fighting could happen. I wanted to be a fighter pilot. I knew what that could come down to with exploring space. That’s why they want fighters, not just general pilots. But we’re really fighting some awful people, aren’t we?”

“We are,” Shiro agreed with a solemn nod. “And whether you were prepared to fight for Earth and the Garrison before, that would have still been in the future. You’re all far too young for this, but you’re here. The lions want you here.”

Lance thought about that as he pulled on the last of his armour. Shiro waited for him, and they walked back towards the bridge together, where everyone else waited. Luckily, no one said a word to them for showing up a little late.

As he travelled down to Blue, Lance couldn’t help but think about Shiro’s words. They really were going to have to fight. Destroy the bad guys and everything. They were going to save people and be heroes, and while that was definitely freaky, it was also kind of cool.

"You think the Balmerans will have a parade for us after we've freed everybody?" Lance asked after he was settled in Blue and waited for the signal to go. That would be really awesome. No one else he knew had a parade dedicated to them! Didn’t they deserve that? They were going to put their lives on the line for these people.

Lance was startled out of his thoughts when Keith’s face popped up on a screen in front of him. The other boy looked almost disappointed and spoke in an almost soft tone. "It's not about the glory, Lance. It's about freeing prisoners from Zarkon."

“No, I know,” Lance said quickly. “I know. But still. When they—“ Blue cut him off as she jumped into action and left the hanger. “Hey! A bit of warning next time!” She was definitely amused. The jerk.

Almost immediately, the Galra fired at all of them, and they had to scatter.

"This is it. Get your heads in the game!” Shiro called out over the comms as Black swept down towards the ground. “Remember, the Balmera is a living creature. Make sure you pinpoint only the Galra installations and not its surface."

Pidge barely paid any attention to that. Instead, she looked around the cockpit of the Green Lion and whispered, “Let’s hope this works.” Green purred around her, and Pidge spoke louder so that everyone could hear it, "Initiating cloak."

She watched the scanners, and almost danced in her seat when she realized that Green successfully cloaked herself. The lion encouraged her a lot to try it when she mentioned it, and Pidge was  _ glad _ .

“Alright,” she said as she pressed on the controls. “Let’s get to that tunnel!” Green growled in agreement and they streaked forward completely unnoticed.

Shiro narrowed his eyes as he swerved past the Galra fighters around him. Most of them were focused on Keith, Lance, and Hunk, which left him to figure out what it was that he was supposed to do. How was he supposed to take this thing down?

Black reassured him, and something new popped up on his screen. “A…jaw blade?” When he realized exactly what it was that the lion suggested, Shiro couldn’t hide his smirk. “Let’s do this!” They shot forward and sliced through the metal of the power generator as if it was made from butter. Whatever the lions were made of was incredibly strong.

Pidge weaved through all the different canyons so that they could get a picture of the entire world—animal—whatever. Earth’s airships had nothing on the lions, or the Galra fighters for that matter. The speed alone was astounding. She went around the entire Balmera like it was nothing.

“All sensors delivered,” she updated everyone else as the last of them were dropped from Green.

Keith was glad that her side of the plan was going well, because though Shiro destroyed most of the power generator, apparently there were a few cannons that were on a different power grid. They really needed to stop assuming that Coran’s information was completely up to date. The cannon on the top of the tower was a piece of work, and while Hunk and Lance were off making a mess of the fighters, the cannon stayed focused on Red.

His frustration bubbled up within him. Keith tried hard to keep it in check most days, but Red, the heathen she was, seemed to encourage his anger.

Keith growled, and it sounded more animalistic than human, though that happened at times. Red roared in response, and then a blast of fire shot from within her mouth and slammed into the tower.

“Woah!” Keith gasped as he jerked back in his seat, eyes wide. “Did you guys just see that? I got fire power!" Fire freaked him out a lot, but that? That was fucking  _ cool _ .

“Hey! I want that!” Lance whined. Keith could actually picture his pout. Which was something his brain needed to stop doing  _ immediately. _

Then the tower began to fall towards the surface of the very sick, and very much alive Balmera. “Oh fuck.”

“Keith!” Hunk growled as Yellow flew at the tower and pressed up against it to keep it from falling. “We can’t hurt the Balmera.”

Blue whispered urgently to Lance, and he shot towards the tower. “Blue knows what to do!” She opened her maw wide, and out of it shot a jet of blue energy that slammed into the tower and froze it. “Ha! Aw snap! These rays are super cool, just like me!” He heard a snort over the comms, and wasn’t sure who it came from. He’d just blame Keith. Probably jealous.

“Great job, team!” Shiro called out as the five lions regrouped. They hovered over the mineshaft, and waited for the Galra to make the next move.

Except, they never came. Lance’s brow furrowed and he leaned forward, as if they would help him see what was going on better. “Uhh…guys?”

“Where are all the troops?” Keith wondered out loud. “They’re not coming to the surface.”

“Yeah,” Hunk agreed. “There were a ton of them down there.”

“Allura?” Shiro asked. “Can you tell us what’s going on?”

An image popped up in front of Lance. “There is an entire hangar of Galra fighters just below the surface. Someone has to take those out before they can launch.”

That didn’t answer Shiro’s question in the least. Their leader was quick to let it go though. “They’re luring us down, but it seems that we really have no choice.” They all let Shiro think for a moment. “Keith, Lance, you guys hit the hangar. Hunk, head to the prison to rescue Shay and the other Balmerans. Pidge and I will track down the Galra soldiers."

Lance’s stomach lurched. He had to work with Keith? What was Shiro  _ thinking _ ? They were probably just going to argue the entire time! Except, they hadn’t when Keith came to get him after the whole Nyma thing, and that was after he’d kinda, sorta been a bit of a jerk.

No one else protested though, so Lance confirmed that he understood the plan and went in the same direction as Keith to land their lions.

This was going to be a mess.

…

When Keith was younger he found a really strange rock. It didn’t look like a normal one at all with some shiny bits on it and almost vertical stripes. He was completely amazed when his father told him that it was actually petrified wood.

The Balmera was similar to that. It felt like stone beneath his feet, but he knew it was alive, and that was kind of blowing his mind a bit. It was odd to know that some things lived on and inside a living creature.

So they wouldn’t attract too much attention, they left their lions a little farther away, hidden by an outcropping on the Balmera’s surface, and drove their little speeders to the cavern that would take them down to the underground hangar.

It was an old tunnel, with worn, crumbling stones. That was probably a good thing though. The heavy Galra and sentries most likely didn’t use this tunnel. Both he and Lance were much smaller than them, but they still had to move carefully.

A gasp escaped Keith’s lips as the rocks beneath his feet crumbled slightly. He grimaced and mentally apologized to the Balmera as he scrambled to find some kind of purchase for his feet.

Lance scooted closer to him, an arm going around his waist to grab onto the rock wall on the other side of him. Pressed up firmer to the surface, Keith looked over at Lance with confusion.

“I got ya,” Lance assured him. “Won’t let you fall. Too far, at least.”

Keith snorted, but worked together with him to get down far enough to where it was safe to jump.

They silently moved throughout the horizontal part of the cave, the cyan lights on their suits illuminated the way. That made Keith frown a little bit. “Do you think there’s a way to control the lights?” He motioned to the ones on his thighs.

Lance glanced down at them and made an odd little noise. It almost sounded like he choked on something. He turned his gaze up to Keith’s helmet and shrugged. “Must be, or it wouldn’t be good for any kind of stealth.” They both looked at their gauntlets where most of the controls were projected from, and silently seemed to agree that fiddling with the suits was something they could do when they weren’t in the middle of a sensitive mission.

The tunnel they were in led to an opening right above the hangar. It was partially hidden by old rocks, and Keith really got the impression that the Galra didn’t know it was there. Why would they leave such a good vantage point unguarded otherwise? They could see everything from where they were.

His scanned the scene in front of him quickly, noting the couple sentries walking around. The hangar itself was pretty empty. This was probably a trap, but really, what choice did they have but to spring said trap? "The entire hangar's only being guarded by a few sentries." His bayard appeared in his hand, and glowed as it shifted into his rapier. “Let’s go.” If they cut through those couple sentries, they’d be home free.

“Woah!” Lance suddenly grabbed the protective collar of Keith’s armour and hauled him back. He fell to the ground beside him. “Cool your jets! Don't you remember all that stuff about this Balmera thing being a sensitive animal?"

Keith bristled a bit. “Of course I do.” He  _ loved _ animals, big and small. He was amazed by them. Why would he forget that the Balmera was one when it was already in so much pain?

“Yeah, well, we can’t just blow things up like a psycho!” Lance scolded him.

“I wasn’t planning on it!” Keith motioned to the two sentries with his sword before he let it vanish. “We take them out quickly. Nothing has to blow up. I’m not an idiot.” He scowled at him fiercely. “You could probably take them out from here with your blaster easily enough.” He’d noticed Lance’s accuracy while they trained. It was impressive, to say the least.

“With my blaster? No.” Lance shook his head and looked down. “If I had a sniper rifle, I could definitely do it. I was training with those in the Garrison. Not the blaster though. And don’t tell me you  _ don’t _ think this is a trap of sorts. Who says that there aren’t more hidden somewhere waiting? It’s suspicious that there’s only two when they were clearly expecting us.”

Keith bit his lip, and looked up at Lance. Okay, he was definitely right. Why did he have to be right? Great, Lance had to be both attractive  _ and _ smart in these kind of situations, didn’t he? Keith would like to request being shot in the face, please and thank you.

“You got a better idea?” he asked, roughly and defensively.

“I do,” Lance said immediately, a smug expression coloured his features. He shifted over and pointed at the room above the hangar. “We sneak into the control room to shut down the bay doors. That'll trap the ships in. Then we stop anyone else from being able to get in to open them."

Keith opened his mouth to protest, but then thought better of it. “That…is a much better idea.” Lance smirked at him, and though it was a bit smug, it was more proud and amused than anything else. Keith really couldn’t stop the soft smile that spread across his lips as he regarded Lance.

Apparently someone being good at strategy did it for him. Who knew?

“Come on,” Lance nodded towards a hidden ledge, and Keith followed him without hesitation. Why would he hesitate? It would be totally stupid and reckless to trust Lance with his heart again, but on a mission? Yeah, Keith got the feeling that Lance would have his back.

…

Hunk maneuvered his speeder around the corners of the tunnels carefully. He didn’t want to hurt the Balmera worse than it already was. Could it feel him as he drove around? Did  _ that _ hurt? Hunk had so many questions. Were Balmerans like bacteria were to people? That was an odd thought. There definitely had to be some sort of symbiotic relationship going on.

He came to a stop as he neared yet  _ another _ dead end. This was the  _ third _ one. He was going to lose it if it kept happening! “Allura, Coran, what’s my position? All these tunnels look the same. I can't remember where the prison is."

“You’re close,” Coran answered him, always cheerful. “Back up and take the other path, then take the first right. Once you get there, you'll have to disable the energy doors. Be careful. It looks like it's heavily guarded."

Hunk swallowed nervously. “Yeah, got it.” He did, because he wanted, no, needed to help Shay and her people. He had to. That didn’t mean that his fear vanished overnight or something. No, he was terrified and still kind of wanted to run home.

He was going to help though, because he was someone that could, and if someone that could help didn’t, then they were just as much a part of the problem.

With that in mind, Hunk carefully backed up his speeder and went the other way. He could do this.

…

Lance was in trouble. He was in  _ so _ much trouble. This was such a bad idea. An awful idea that would make Marco and Rachel cackle at his misfortune. Actually, Veronica would probably get in on it too, because she was a heathen. Luis was the only serious one.

Going through the vents to get to the Galra? That was a good idea. Fantastic one. The less they were shot at, the better! It was the choice to let Keith go first though so Lance could guard the rear that was awful

Guard the rear, ha! Didn’t that sum up Lance’s problem.

It wasn’t  _ his _ fault that they had to crawl through some parts, and literally the only thing he could see was Keith’s nice ass. No, it wasn’t nice, it was annoying because it was just there, in his face, distracting him from what he was trying to do.

Why couldn’t Keith have no ass like in cartoons and stuff? Where the dudes had broad shoulders but then everything else just went straight down to their legs while women were drawn extra curvy?

What was  _ wrong _ with him? What the cheese was he  _ thinking _ ? He needed to get himself together.

Keith came to a stop and Lance almost ran face-first into said butt. “What are you doing?” Didn’t Keith understand how much he struggled back there?

He cast a confused glance over his shoulder, the aqua lights seemed to make his pale skin almost glow and it looked really pret—pathetic. Pathetic. That was the word Lance wanted.

“The control room is right under us,” Keith muttered and motioned to the tiny map he had on his gauntlet. He summoned his bayard and maneuvered around so that he could slice through the metal of the air duct they were in. It actually didn’t work out that well. It definitely would have gone through the metal, but they’d likely be noticed before they could get through the rest of the way.

Keith scowled at that, and reached back to another compartment Lance noticed was added to his belt on the back. Not that he looked at that area on purpose, but he couldn’t help that he noticed a few things while it was in his face. From that compartment, Keith took out a pretty big knife that was partially wrapped in an old cloth.

“Hate to say this, but if your bayard won’t cut through it, I doubt that will.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Keith insisted and brought the knife down. Where the bayard struggled a bit, that knife went through the panel like it was  _ butter _ . What the  _ heck _ kind of metal was that thing made of?

Keith cut around in a perfect circle, but he didn’t go all the way through. Instead, he left it just barely attached and looked at Lance with a raised eyebrow.

Lance grinned, summoned his blaster, and jumped onto it. The metal gave way beneath him, and he slammed down onto the sentry that manned the computers. He was ready to shoot anything that he saw, but there was literally only one thing there.

How anticlimactic.

Keith swung down behind him, and looked around the room as Lance went to the computer. “Keep an eye out for those guards. I don’t  _ think _ they’ll show up, I noticed they moved in a pattern earlier, but they never came up here.”

“The Galra might not be used to someone opposing them, especially not here,” Keith noted as he moved closer to the door to stand watch.

Lance wasn’t some sort of computer whiz like both Pidge and Hunk were, but it wasn’t like he was a complete slouch either. Bless his helmet and the fact that the Galra language apparently hadn’t changed in the past 5,000 years, because it was able to translate everything on the console in front of him. He was able to see the button that he needed to press, but it wouldn’t react to his touch at all.

“Uh…hmm…” he fiddled with his gauntlet until he was able to tug off the armoured glove that covered his hand. The screen was impossibly smooth under his finger, but it still didn’t react. “Nope.”

“What’s wrong?” Keith asked.

“Nothing’s reacting,” Lance explained, frustration welling within him. “Doesn’t matter that my helmet translates the Galra gibberish if it won’t work.” Maybe they hadn’t thought this through too well. At least they still had Keith’s plan of destroying all the guards to fall back on.

“Let me see.” Keith came over to him, and leaned close to look at the screens. A little too close. Lance looked away and scanned the room. Maybe they could just destroy the computer? But no, that wouldn’t open the doors.

The computer beeped, and the bay doors started to close. Lance whipped around to look at Keith, who stared at the screen with as much confusion as Lance felt. “How’d you do that?”

“I…just tapped the button that said door, then put my hand on the hand print,” Keith said, completely perplexed as he looked at his own hand.

“Huh. Maybe the past Red Paladin was Galra? And it’s still…like…programmed” Lance suggested.

“King Alfor wasn’t Galra,” Keith replied almost absentmindedly. He blinked, and a surprised expression crossed his features. “Wait, if Alfor was the Red Paladin before me, and he built Voltron, does that mean there were only one set of Paladins before us?”

Lance tried to reply to that, but found himself unable to. He blinked several times as his mind ran over all the things Allura and Coran told them about ‘Paladin Traditions’ and everything like that. How it sounded like they were a part of a long line of warriors.

What the  _ cheese _ ? The implications of that weirded Lance out more than crawling behind Keith ever would.

…

Hunk was good with machines. He liked to think that he was good with people too, but machines were a bit easier to deal with and figure out. Yellow was pretty much the best of both worlds. An amazing machine that he still needed to figure out, and also an actual presence that could communicate with him through feelings and impressions.

Needless to say, it didn’t take him long to figure out exactly how he could tweak his speeder so there was a semblance of auto drive on it. Earth had plenty of self-driving cars. In fact, if someone didn’t have a Garrison vehicle or a hoverbike of sorts, the cars were usually self-driving. Hunk worked on those things a billion times before with his older brother and father.

It was thanks to that, that he was able to shoot at the Galra sentries as he swung into the prison block—tunnel—whatever it was. Most of them fled into the tunnels as he approached anyway, but he took out the ones that decided to stay and fight.

He spun to a stop, and honestly, Hunk felt just a tiny bit like an action hero at that point. 

The feeling left him as soon as he looked around the cavern and realized that there were more families than ever before in the cells. Hunk wasn’t an idiot, he knew that getting to the prisoners without much of a fight the way he had wasn’t right. They were up to something, and he didn’t like it in the least.

Trap or not, Hunk couldn’t leave these people in the cells. So he grabbed an arm from one of the sentries like Shay had before, and used that to unlock the doors.

When he got to the last cell, a familiar group of Balmerans looked up at him. Shay’s father brightened. “Hunk, you have returned!”

He sounded so pleasantly surprised, like he honestly thought he wouldn’t see him again. Not that Hunk could blame him. People didn’t exactly stand up to the Galra, from what he understood.

“I promised I’d be back,” he told him. “My friends and I are here to help.” His dark eyes moved from face to face, as he realized one very important person was absent. “Where’s Shay?”

“Our life may not have been perfect, but our family was whole.” Hunk looked at the other wall of the cell, where Rax sat away from the rest of his family. “Your arrival has left us imprisoned and torn apart. As soon as your attack started, they took her away to the core of the Balmera. For all we know, she could be gone for good."

Hunk swallowed and thought that over. Shay was the first Balmeran, maybe the only one, to believe that they were going to help. She believed it so much that she sprang into action to do what she could. It made Hunk feel ashamed of his own reluctance. If she was gone because she helped them, he would never forgive himself.

“Paladins, are you there?” Allura spoke up. Hunk jumped but then replied to her with a quick yes along with everyone else. “The Galra troops are moving down the tunnels. It looks like they're going down toward the center."

He blinked at that and looked at Shay’s family quickly. "They must be headed to the core of the Balmera. That's where they're holding Shay." He nodded towards her family and took off down the tunnel as fast as he could. He couldn’t let her down.

"They're drawing us into an ambush, but we don't have a choice if we want to save Shay,” Shiro noted, and Hunk almost wanted to kiss the man for that. We have to follow them. Lance, Keith, get out of the control room and down to the core. Pidge, what’s your status?”

“I’ll be there,” she assured him. Shiro and Pidge were sent through the Balmera to try and take out smaller groups of sentries they found so that they wouldn’t have to fight them all at once. Personally, Hunk would have sent Pidge to the control room, but hey, he was just a leg.

“Copy that,” Lance answered. “Just need to make sure that they don’t open the—I mean, sure, why not smash the computer?”

“We gotta go,” Keith replied, his voice doubled from his proximity to Lance.

There were a couple of loud bangs that sounded like Lance shot something, but Hunk wasn’t worried at all. He and Keith would be completely fine, and it didn’t sound like anything shot back.

Shay would be okay. They’d all get there, save her, and stop the Galra.

They had to.

…

If Pidge ran into one more dead end, she was absolutely going to lose her mind. What looked like full tunnels on her maps were closed off, and that just didn’t make sense. Well, unless the Balmera changed the tunnels. It was alive, right?

That was absolutely fascinating. They were  _ inside _ of a creature right now, even if it looked like a planet and had an atmosphere that was, oddly enough, fine for humans to breathe. The odds of them coming across planets with atmospheres they could survive in were astronomically small.

She had the feeling they were going to run into a few of them, because of course they were. Well, if she ever got out of these stupid tunnels.

“I quit!” Pidge cried out as she came to a stop again. “Allura, these maps are useless and so are the scanners.”

“We’re doing fine,” Lance replied back. She could picture the smarmy look on his face, and was half tempted to ask Keith to clock him for her.

Before she could, Allura spoke up again. “Yes, it would appear that our sensors from our…BLIP tech may not be as powerful as we hoped. Or perhaps it’s because of the Balmera’s biological makeup. Pidge, your suits seems to be working well though, and I have a good scan of the area around you. If you go back and to the left, there are narrow hallways that you should be able to use. You will need to continue on foot.”

“That’s fine.” Anything was better than endless dead end tunnels.

She made her way back to the tunnel Allura mentioned and carefully crept forward. Pidge was tempted to turn down the lighting of her suit, but thought better of it. Someone might spot her, but she needed the light to see right now. It wasn’t like people could see in the dark or anything like that (she’s have to see if their visors could do something like that).

Pidge tried to be as quiet as possible. It helped that their suits seemed to muffle their footsteps, which helped an awful lot with stealth. At the same time though, it was so eerie to run and not hear herself.

She came to a sudden stop at the sound of movement somewhere in front of her. Her entire body tensed as she whispered, “There’s something down here.”

“Looking into it,” Allura replied briskly. The volume of her voice caused Pidge to wince. “Yes, there’s definitely some biological lifeforms in front of you, though I can’t tell whether they’re Galra or Balmeran.”

With that in mind, Pidge summoned her bayard and pressed forward. She thought she was ready to confront anything she came across, but her heart still leapt up into her chest when she first caught sight of glowing yellow eyes.

She backpedaled and held her bayard up into the air, but froze when one of the shapes came closer so that she could see it through the light of her armour. Pidge lowered her hand and said, “You’re Balmerans.” They looked so tiny compared to the images they’d been shown earlier, so they weren’t just Balmerans, they were probably children.

The closest one took a step back, before squaring their shoulders and coming forward again. Pidge watched them clasp their hands together in front of them as they said, “Please do not hurt the Balmera. It is already quite sad.”

“Huh?” Pidge blinked at that, unable to understand at first. “We’re not going to hurt it. We’re here to help!”

“Help?” the little one asked. “The Galra are very angry. That is bad.”

“It is,” she agreed. “But my friends and I are going to get rid of the Galra.”

The kids all whispered to one another suddenly, and stared at her in pure awe. “You can do that?”

“You bet,” she said with a smile. “We’ve got a magical princess, a castle, and some really cool robots to do it.”

Just like with children on Earth, that seemed to excite them, and one little one threw out their arms eagerly. Their hand accidentally collided with the Balmera, and the wall behind them started to crumble.

“Watch out!” Pidge leapt towards them and tackled the little Balmeran out of the way. The part of the wall that crumbled was huge. She watched a few more pieces crumble away, and realized just  _ how _ fragile the creature was at the moment.

“This one thanks you,” the Balmeran she saved muttered as they got back up. “You are going to help the Balmera? It is sick and in pain. It tells us that time is short.”

“Short for what?” Pidge asked, though she felt like she knew already.

“Then the Balmera will be gone, and these ones will too,” another one said.

Pidge’s heart squeezed in her chest, and she realized exactly what it was that Hunk saw. Why he was so desperate to get back here, and it didn’t necessarily have to do with Shay specifically.

“I need you to go and hide,” she told them. “Unless it’s your parents or someone you trust, stay hidden, okay? We’re going to do everything we can to save the Balmera.”

She didn’t start to run again until all the Balmerans were hidden. These people, they could lose not just their lives, but their entire  _ world _ . That wasn’t even just a theoretical, it was actually happening. The Balmera would slowly crumble from the inside out.

How could she turn her back on people like this to chase her own family? Her own family who would have done everything in their power to help those in need? If she ran away, and they knew what she did, they would be beyond disappointed in her.

…

Getting to the core of the Balmera wasn’t nearly as difficult as Pidge made it out to be. Though maybe that was just Keith’s opinion, because he and Lance hadn’t had a skirmish with a sentry. They heard some running earlier, but that was about it. Which was both a good and an awful thing, because it left Keith to his thoughts, and thoughts sucked sometimes.

Technically speaking, this wasn’t their first mission. Not really. They saved the castle and Arus and all. It was still different though. They stumbled into the situation on Arus. Here they actually had a fully-functioning plan that they were going to stick to. This was almost like a preview of their lives for whoever knew how long.

Keith wasn’t stupid. They weren’t going to bring down a 5,000-year-old empire easily unless they discovered some kind of fracture or something inside of it. Were there Galra that were unhappy? Were their forces spread too thin? Did Zarkon have any children that might be a better option? There were loads of things to consider.

That didn’t matter right now though. What mattered was making their way through the dark tunnels with ease. Being able to see decently well in the dark definitely helped them out (the lights on their suits were a huge asset though).

Lance was stumbling ahead of Keith, not nearly as coordinated for whatever reason. He did sort of strike him as the kind that would be almost chaotically clumsy at times.

They rounded a corner, and Keith came to an abrupt halt when he realized that there were sentries at the end of the tunnel, and Lance was still walking forward like he didn’t see them. Yeah, their suits didn’t illuminate that far, but couldn’t he see it?

Keith grabbed Lance’s jetpack as the sentries held up their guns, shoving him behind one of the outcroppings before he dodged behind the one across from him. Jets of energy shooting by them. “I told you we should have turned the lights on our suits off.” He assumed that was how the sentries saw them.

“And what? Wander in the dark running into things? I already didn’t see them!”

“I thought you had good eyesight?” Keith hissed as he pressed himself closer to the wall when a shot almost grazed him.

“I have  _ perfect _ vision, thanks,” Lance replied sarcastically, the blue light of his suit illuminating his features in an eerie way. “But humans can’t see in the dark, dumbass.”

As Lance started to look around, Keith found himself frozen on the spot. What did  _ that _ mean? Keith always assumed that his semi-decent night vision (it wasn’t perfect or anything) was something all people had.

Holy  _ shit _ , Allura was right, wasn’t she? He  _ had _ to have some kind of alien lineage if he could see in the dark when apparently that wasn’t a thing humans did. Or Lance was a liar, but Keith really didn’t think that was true. Lance had zero reason to lie about that. Especially since Keith didn’t mention the night vision thing to begin with.

A mournful sound echoed through the air. It was deep, and reminded Keith of a whale in a sense, but still so very different. Shivers shot up his spine, and he placed his hand against the rocks in front of him. He then looked at Lance. "Their shooting is destroying the Balmera. We gotta do something!" He gritted his teeth as the sound filtered around them again.

Keith always loved animals. He sometimes felt like he related to them more than people. He once hit a lizard in the desert while on his hoverbike, and went back to get it to bury the little guy because he felt that bad about the whole thing (not that he’d ever admit it).

Well, apparently he had more in common with a cat than other people when it came to his eyesight, but he really didn’t want to think about that.

“We can't shoot back! It'll just make it worse,” Lance said as he looked around frantically. He patted the wall beside him, as if he could soothe the Balmera himself.

Then he froze, eyes locked onto something above Keith’s head. Before he could turn back to look, Lance flailed his arms wildly. If Keith was honest, he was a bit concerned the other boy was about to have a seizure or something, but quickly realized that this was an attempt to communicate without the sentries hearing them.

Yeah, no, Keith was crap at picking up social cues as it was. Body language confused him if it wasn’t someone being aggressive. He had absolutely no idea what those wiggly arms meant.

Also how the fuck did Lance  _ do _ that with his arms? Was he just super flexible or something? Nope, Keith was  _ not _ going down that particular road right now.

Instead, he peered around in an attempt to see what it was Lance noticed in the first place. Then he saw it. Up above his head was almost what looked like a ladder. His eyes followed it up and he realized that he could use it to get around the sentries and attack from behind. They’d see him coming unless there was a distraction and—oh—the wiggly arms.

Keith faced Lance and smiled, because he was  _ impressed _ with how quickly he came up with that. Keith quickly scaled up the wall and ran as fast as he could along the ledge. At the same time, Lance threw himself around the corner and started flailing and making very strange noises.

The sentries shot at him again, but he was prepared this time. His shield appeared and he held his ground against the barrage of enemy fire.

Keith all but  _ threw _ himself down at them. He used his smaller frame to his advantage to duck under the one that turned to face him, and his bayard sliced through the gaps in the armour at the joints.

He controlled his fall forward with a roll, before he got back up to his feet. Lance whistled, and Keith felt his cheeks warm a bit.

They really did make a good team, didn’t they? Even if they didn’t see eye to eye about things all the time.

The Balmera groaned around them, the sound once again chilled Keith to his core. Lance physically shuddered beside him as they both looked at the ceiling, small rocks and dust crumbling down around them.

“We need to go,” Lance muttered.

Keith nodded his head and took the lead this time. If he had freaky, non-human night vision, he might as well put it to good use. He didn’t want them to run into any more trouble.

…

It was so painfully obvious that they were about to run into a trap that it wasn’t even funny. You’d think that the closer they got to the center of the Balmera, to Shay, that there would be more and more sentries. That wasn’t the case. Though their original scans said that the sentries were deep in the tunnels, Hunk had yet to run into a lethal amount of them.

That was okay though. Shay was what mattered most. He would find her, and figure things out from there. He  _ had _ to.

The tunnel opened up into a large cavern that was illuminated from the light of the massive, yellow and orange crystal within. The next thing he saw made pure terror rush through Hunk’s body. Shay was suspended in the air by her wrists, and there was an honest to god  _ muzzle _ covering her mouth.

“Shay!” He ran towards her and scanned the room to see if there was any way to get to her. The chains were attached to the  _ ceiling _ , and the only way Hunk could think to get her down was to shoot at them, but that would probably end badly.

Shay started to squirm, and Hunk could faintly make out the muffled sounds that accompanied it. He needed to get her out and fast. That couldn’t be good for her arms in any sort of fashion.

Hunk whipped around at the sound of footsteps, hands gripped his cannon tightly. His shoulders relaxed as he saw Shiro and Pidge.

Shiro looked around, and his eyebrows lifted with confusion, no doubt about the lack of sentries ready to jump on them. That didn’t matter though. “We have to help Shay.”

Pidge narrowed her eyes as she stared at the chains above them. Her eyes trailed around the room until she suddenly darted to one of the other tunnels. A victorious cry escaped her as Pidge held one of the Galra blasters above her head.

“I have a gun,” Hunk said, waving his cannon around.

She groaned and rolled her eyes. “You have a  _ cannon _ , and it’s not going to help you at all. Also, do you expect me to be able to help catch your rock girlfriend? My noodly arms won’t do any good. I’ll try to blast the chains, you two catch her.”

“Have you  _ ever _ shot a practice blaster before?” Shiro asked skeptically.

“No, but, what else can we do.” She balanced it precariously on her shoulder and aimed at the chain. “Sorry Balmera if I hit you once or twice. I really didn’t mean to!” She closed her eyes and started to shoot.

“Eyes open! Eyes open!” Shiro cried out. Hunk dropped his cannon as Pidge managed to hit the chains a couple times in a wild frenzy.

Shay fell down, and despite the fact that he had Shiro’s help to catch her, her weight was still so great that they ended up in a heap on the floor. It really wouldn’t have ended well with Pidge.

“What the heck?” Lance asked from one of the entrances. He came in with his blaster out and ready, Keith with his sword, and both looked extremely confused. Pidge’s use of the blaster probably made the two of them think they were under attack.

Shiro used his Galra arm to break apart Shay’s shackles and the muzzle. It was off of her all of two seconds before she exclaimed, “We must leave! Hurry!”

It was too late though. All of the entrances around them sealed with thick metallic doors. Lance yelped as he nearly got crushed by one, and stared at it blankly. “Whatever happened, it’s Keith’s fault.”

Keith shot him an annoyed look. “Fuuuuuck you.”

“Shay?” Hunk asked as he stared at her with confusion.

“The Galra gained the knowledge that you would return to the Balmera,” she explained as she put pressure on her wrists.

“How?” Pidge asked.

“I know not.” She shook her head and stared at Hunk mournfully. “But they set this trap just for you. I was the bait.”

Shiro frowned deeply. “Who could have possibly known that we were heading here to save Shay?”

How could he ask that, it was  _ so _ obvious! “Rolo.” Anger welled up within Hunk. “Those liars must have told Zarkon!” He  _ swore _ if they got out of here and he ever saw Rolo and Nyma again, it was going to show them just how much he hated their sheer existence.

Pressure on his shoulder broke Hunk out of his dark thoughts. He looked at Shiro, who’s grey eyes stared back with genuine concern, despite his stern tone of voice when he spoke. “Easy there. We don’t know for sure. What matters is figuring out how to get out of here.”

Hunk inhaled. He knew Shiro was right. Of course he was. But still, Hunk wanted to blame  _ someone _ for this.

“Wait!” Lance said suddenly as he perked up. “We have a giant Castleship hovering in the sky. Allura, can you please come get us?"

There was a problem with that request. Keith beat Hunk to it though. “How do you expect her to do that, genius?” He seemed a little more annoyed than Lance’s comment warranted though.

"I don't know, maybe they got teleporters or something,” Lance pointed out. Keith blinked at him, hostility replaced with sheer confusion.

“In a castle where we have to use  _ zip lines _ to get to our lions?” Pidge asked skeptically.

Lance held up a finger and opened his mouth to argue, but stopped. “Okay,  _ maybe _ that plan is a bit flawed.”

Shay shifted beside Hunk. She looked so confused as her attention shifted from one Paladin to the next. Yeah, they  _ probably _ weren’t what she expected at all. Hunk had the strong urge to apologize to her about that, but really, there was nothing they could do.

“Why isn’t she replying?”

Everyone looked at Shiro again, who frowned heavily.

“What?” Keith asked.

“Whether she could help us or not, Allura  _ should _ be replying to us,” he answered. “Allura? Coran?” He paused and looked up at the top of the cavern, as if that could help. “Paladins to castleship, do you read us?”

They all went silent as they waited for an answer. Hunk shifted a bit as his stomach twisted. “Are we too far underground?”

“I was talking to her just before we got here, I stopped because we saw you and Shay but…” Pidge trailed off, her brow furrowed. “She didn’t say anything since we got to this room. Something must be interfering with the signal.”

Oh  _ god _ . Did that mean that they were  _ trapped _ in there?

“We’re on our own with no backup,” Shiro said as he straightened his shoulders. His eyes moved from one person to the next, and he spoke with a tone that offered no arguments. “We’re going to stay calm and work as a team, okay?”

Hunk felt just  _ slightly _ talked down to, but like the others, he nodded his head. If they didn’t figure something out they would be trapped there until Zarkon came for them or something. Hunk’s eyes trailed along the scar that marred Shiro’s face before it trailed down to the prosthetic arm he knew was within Shiro’s armour. He was pretty sure he’d rather be buried alive than be Zarkon’s prisoner. 

…

_ Stray curls of white hair fell into Allura’s wide eyes. She let out a puff of air to get it out of the way, her tiny hands clasped together in front of her as she stared at the massive form of the Red Lion before her. _

_ “Please?” Allura asked as she tilted her head slightly. A thrill rushed through her as Red mirrored the movement, the sharp sound of metal scraped against metal echoed through the hangar. _

__

_ “What are you doing, daughter?” _

__

_ She looked over her shoulder as her father approached, but quickly turned her attention back to read. “I asked Red if I could fly him.” _

_ “Did you?” Alfor asked. Allura pouted at his amused tone. Was it really that funny that she wanted to fly the lion. “I suppose that you’ve been doing quite well with your flight classes. Coran assures me that you will be able to pilot the castleship better than I ever could, just like your mother.” _

__

_ Her pout vanished at the mention of her mother. The memories of the woman were blurred at the edge of her mind. It’d been a long time since she passed. 50 decaphoebs already. Despite the haziness, she still had some memory of the way her mother moved the massive ship around with ease. She was quite proud of the comparison. _

__

_ Except, as much as she wanted to make her parents proud, to live up to her mother’s legacy, she couldn’t help but want something else. _

__

_ “Thank you, father,” Allura replied easily. She looked back up towards Red again. “I want to be able to pilot the castleship when I’m older, but could I fly Red as well?” _

__

_ “No, daughter,” Alfor said with a shake of his head. _

__

_ Her hands fell down to her sides, fingers curled into fists. “Why not?” _

__

_ “The lions choose their pilots,” he explained. _

_ So what? Did that mean that he thought she wasn’t worthy of Red? Of any of the lions? That hurt a lot. She turned her attention away from Alfor. “Red, would you choose me? I think you’re beautiful! I’d prefer you, but I suppose the others are good too. I like Blue. She’s friendly.” _

__

_ Alfor chuckled and placed a hand on her shoulder. “That’s not how it works, Allura. Do not worry, though, you will be the best pilot on Altea. Now come, we have much to do today.” _

__

_ “Okay, father.” She followed him out of the hangar, but looked back at Red wistfully. She wanted to make her parents proud, she did. She wanted to be able to fly the castleship like her mother. She wanted to create and build things like her father. She wanted to help fight for those that couldn’t fight for themselves, to help others and be a protector and voice for when they didn’t have one. _

__

_ She wanted to be a Paladin. _

…

Allura braced herself against the controls, her shoulders rigid as she stared at the metal floor beneath her boots. “Paladins? Paladins, do you read me?” Her head whipped towards Coran, as if he held the answers to all her questions. “Where  _ are _ they?”

“Maybe they’re a tad busy to answer?” he asked, his voice raised with worry that he probably wanted to hide.

“All five at once?” she demanded. Coran’s excuses were to soothe her fears, Allura  _ knew _ that. She didn’t want to be coddled though. “Where we can’t hear a thing, even when the comms are accidently left on?” Which was more often than not. It was a bit strange to hear several different conversations occur at one time, but she adapted quickly and focused on those who directly needed her help, or seemed to be in trouble.

“Well…” Coran said, and struggled to find another answer.

It was unfair of her, but Coran’s inability to actually  _ answer _ her questions only irritated her more. “I was  _ just _ talking to Pidge!” She twisted her hands together. “Paladins?” Her voice cracked on the second half of the word as reality hit her. She was going to  _ lose _ them. Sure, Allura didn’t know them all that well yet, but she did want to try. And yes, sometimes she was harsh and critical, and once or twice even mentioned replacements, but faced with the potential reality of that, Allura quickly realized that she didn’t want it. She wanted  _ these _ Paladins.

Along with Coran and the mice, they were  _ all _ she had in this strange new universe.

No doubt the mice felt her distress, because they came to her from wherever it was that they chose to explore today (they decided to map out the ship from day to day, so it was common for them to vanish until mealtimes). They squeaked at her, and Allura leaned down to pick them up. Her small friends.

In a way, they reminded her of Keith, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance.

The mice could feel her pain. They knew exactly what went through her mind. She wouldn’t hesitate to help her small companions if they needed her.

So why should she hesitate to help the bigger ones?

The mice squeaked, as if they approved the thought.

Allura allowed them to run down her arms and onto the controls as she faced Coran with a stern expression. “I’m going to find them.”

He jerked as if she physically hit him. “You can’t. We need you here to help man the castle.”

“Does it matter if we lose them? We find new ones? What if the lions  _ never _ choose anyone else? Black refused to let  _ anyone _ in after Zarkon…after whatever it was that happened to him.” She stared at him fiercely. Allura  _ knew _ that Coran just wanted to protect her. It was what he had done all her life, especially in the moments when her father was too lost in his grief over her mother for anything else. “I  _ am _ going down there.”

Ever since she saw the lions, she wanted to be a Paladin. Something about them just called to her. It wasn’t that she thought there was something  _ wrong _ with being the pilot of the castleship. She was quite proud of her accomplishments and how much she knew about it. The ship wasn’t easy to fly by any means (in fact, it was the most complex mobile structure ever created on Altea). She always  _ wanted _ to be a Paladin though.

She wasn’t one, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fight. Yes, the Paladins  _ infuriated _ her to no end some days, but she didn’t want them  _ gone _ .

She was about to leave the room when the alarms began to blare. Pure  _ rage _ rushed through her as she asked, “What  _ now _ ?” What was happening to keep her away from her Paladins.

“Galra ships,” Coran answered. “Lance and Keith stopped them from being able to leave, but these ones are arriving from the atmosphere.” He looked at the projections in front of him carefully. “They don’t appear to have noticed us. The barrier combined with the cloud coverage is keeping us being detected but they’re breaking off into groups…” He trailed off as he tried to figure out what they were doing. “The lions! They’re going after the lions!”

“No!” Allura slammed her hand down just beside the mice, who squeaked at her angrily. “They are  _ not _ taking the lions.” She was going to fight that  _ entire _ fleet herself.

“The castle’s not completely recovered,” Coran warned her. “We can’t hold all of them off for long.”

She gritted her teeth together. “We’ll hold on for as long as we need to!” She wasn’t going to accept failure. Not this time. They were going to fight with  _ everything _ that they had, and hopefully the Paladins were in a situation they could get out of. She would try to send regular messages to them in hopes that they’d be received.

Allura narrowed her eyes and pushed the ship to move. These Galra were going to see  _ exactly _ what she could do.

…

Pidge sighed as she minimized the screen she projected from her gauntlet. “It’s no use. They’ve definitely jammed any signals, but I can’t get around it with what we have.”

“Great,” Lance sighed like the drama queen he was. “We’re going to die down here.”

“We’re not dying here, Lance,” Shiro replied to him pointedly. Thank you, Shiro, Pidge thought. She didn’t want to picture this as her end. Underground as they waited for the Galra to come get them. Just the  _ thought _ that this could be it for them made Pidge’s stomach twist sickeningly. It  _ couldn’t _ be.

“Perhaps my people can help us get out,” Shay suggested, and everyone looked to her.

“They seemed a bit…frightened,” Pidge admitted, not quite sure what to say. The Balmerans really didn’t seem like fighters. “I don’t think any of them would come looking for us.”

“They don’t have to.” Shay looked up at the stone that lit the entire room. “This is the very heart of the Balmera. It is normally the greatest of honours to see it, but the Galra have wounded the Balmera greatly and it is weak. The glow is minimal. It still lives. We can communicate through the Balmera itself. It senses our vibrations and sends a message to those far from us. It is my hope that the Balmera will have the strength to help us.” She placed her hand against the Balmera’s heart and closed her eyes.

Pidge breathed out in awe as she watched Shay’s hand begin to glow. They were all silent for a moment, before Shay lowered her hand and stepped back.

“Did it work?” Hunk asked her.

She turned to face them. “I believe so. Now we must wait.”

Pidge shifted nervously. The thought of just  _ waiting _ to see if they were going to be rescued or not didn’t sit well with her. In fact, it became almost a gnawing sensation within her.

Keith crossed his arms in front of him, just as unhappy with the situation if his expression said anything. His brow furrowed. “Something’s wrong.”

“You need to be patient,” Shiro assured him.

“Not that. Can’t you feel it?”

Normally, that kind of question would make Pidge roll her eyes. There was no scientific basis for such a thing. However, in this case, she absolutely understood. The sensation she felt didn’t belong to  _ her _ . “Green.”

“We’re not up there with the lions,” Hunk realized. “This was a trap to get  _ them _ .”

“We locked all the ships in the hangar,” Lance spoke up. “There was  _ no way _ they got that thing open again. No chance.” He looked towards Keith, who nodded in agreement.

“If they knew we were coming, they likely had backup or a second squadron somewhere else,” Shiro rationalized, and then winced. “Which doesn’t bode well for the Castle of Lions. They were our backup and their shields are already compromised.”

Pidge’s heart leapt horribly at that. She could  _ feel _ Green. Could feel the urge to get out and help. No matter how many times she scanned the room, she couldn’t think of a single thing to get them out that wouldn’t hurt the Balmera.

“Shay,” Shiro spoke up after a few moments, “are you sure the Balmera is sending your message?"

She nodded her head and pressed her hand against the stone again and concentrated. Everyone watched with bated breath, though nothing seemed to happen at first. Then they felt the Balmera begin to rumble.

“What’s happening?” Hunk asked wildly as he looked around them.

Pidge looked towards the central door just in time to see the top part of it get  _ crushed _ , metal pieces crunching and screeching in the process. She flinched away from it as the rock opened up again, the crushed door left in its wake. Several tall figures walked forward, shrouded by the dust. The first thing she saw was the shine of the yellow eyes, and her bayard appeared in her hand.

“Father! Rax” Shay cried out, and Pidge swore that she nearly had a heart attack. The Balmeran ran by them and practically tackled the others in a hug. This was the  _ second _ time that she was fooled thinking that yellow Balmeran eyes were Galra.  _ Why _ did they have to look so much alike that way and in stature? Was it night vision? It had to be night vision. She was going to look into that.

"We must make haste,” the dude apparently named Rax said. “We know a shortcut through the tunnels to the surface.”

“Good,” Shiro said quickly and looked to the others. “When we get up, get to your lions as quickly as you can. Got it? We might not be coming out anywhere near our speeders, so let’s hope you didn’t skip on leg day.”

“I never skip leg day,” Lance replied and stuck his leg into the air at a ridiculous angle. Keith stared a bit from where he stood, and eyed Lance’s leg oddly. He was probably just as confused as Pidge was about how the heck he did that without breaking anything.

Shiro shot Lance an unimpressed look as they all headed towards the surface.

…

It wasn’t a joke when Shiro said to run as quickly as they could to their lions. They came out of the tunnels close to Yellow, and in the trajectory to their lions, Lance and Keith would come across their speeders, but he and Pidge had no such luck. He felt winded from the mad dash to Black, aware that there were Galra fighters overhead. They didn’t matter. What mattered was getting into Black before the Galra managed to lift him up out of reach.

He really wished that  _ he _ hadn’t skipped leg day.

The purple barrier was up around the lion, but Shiro was somehow able to phase through it with ease, thankful that he didn’t slam into it. There was no way he could have stopped his momentum in time.

He was climbing up towards the cockpit when the lion shuddered and Shiro stumbled to the floor. Black rumbled unhappily as the Galra began to lift them into the air. The lion wasn’t at all worried, especially since Shiro was already there, but he was  _ annoyed _ .

With a grunt of exertion, Shiro pushed himself back to his feet and ran to his seat. He might have been the last one to his lion, he wasn’t sure, but they needed to get up into the air as quickly as possible. The massive shape of a Galra battle cruiser loomed above them, and it didn’t spell anything good for anyone.

“I’m in Black, has anyone else reached their lions?” Shiro called out as he urged Black forward. The lion roared as they broke out of the tractor beams’ hold, and streaked towards the castle.

“In the air,” Hunk answered.

“Me too,” Pidge agreed, and that surprised Shiro. She had the farthest way to go. “Lance took me in his speeder. He’s on his way back.”

“I’m in Red, but we’re guarding Blue until Lance gets here,” Keith said firmly, and Shiro knew he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Shiro saw Green and Yellow lurch into the sky and enter the dogfight, while he flew as quickly as he could towards the castle

“Paladins!” Allura cried out. Apparently the comms to the castle were working again, which was a good thing. “Where were you? What happened?”

“We’ll explain later,” Shiro said as he dodged a few fighters. “What’s the status of things out here?”

“The castle has taken more hits than it should have at this point,” Coran answered. “We’ve rerouted power from different systems to the particle barrier, but the trade-off was speed and a few of our blasters.”

Okay, so the castle was a sitting duck at the moment. That was just  _ great _ . Seriously, sometimes Shiro swore that he was the only person here with any common sense.

Blue flew by at that exact moment and ran into one of the drill rigs that were still set up. Yup, the only one with common sense.

“Sorry,” Lance’s voice echoed over the comms, and Shiro grimaced. He could practically  _ feel _ Lance’s embarrassment through tone alone. “Got distracted by another fighter.”

“Good job, genius,” Keith spoke up, and Shiro almost groaned. He didn’t want to deal with their childish arguments right now. “Bet my fire power can take out more fighters than your ice power can.”

“Bring it!” Lance cried out and the Red and Blue lions soared through the ships and rained hell down on them.

It was only as Shiro used Black’s jaw blade to slice through one of the larger ships that it occurred to him that Keith very swiftly brought Lance out of his small funk and got him back on track. He would have praised him, if he thought that Keith had any kind of interpersonal skills to even  _ notice _ when something was wrong, let alone figure out how to subtly act on it in a way that worked. Shiro loved his brother, he did, but a people person Keith was not.

They rushed through the Galra fighters, able to cut through them with ease. Though the fighters were fast, they weren’t nearly as fast as the battleships nor the lions. Of course, none of them could move anywhere  _ close _ to their top speeds this close to a planet, or any potential crashes would be absolutely devastating. Despite this, the Galra stood no chance against them.

“Hunk!” Pidge cried out as Yellow was surrounded. She maneuvered her smaller lion in front of him, the shield on her back blocking all of the laser fire. Shiro cut through the fighters around them with ease.

“Thanks guys!” Hunk cried out.

The battle was going well. Far too well. Shiro should have known that something bad would creep up on them. Up above them, a powerfully laser blasted from the battleship and slammed into the castle’s particle barrier. He heard Allura cry out in alarm as the castle jerked, though the shields held up until the assault was over.

“Paladins!” she cried out. “The shields are down and we need you here immediately! One more hit like that and we’re finished!”

Shiro’s lips pressed into a firm line, and he called out, “Okay team, let’s form Voltron!” He heard and felt the cries from the others as the five lions flew up into the air and light surrounded them

…

Coran nearly tripped into the Black Paladin’s station from the force of the laser that hit the shields. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could to get back to his station to assess the damages.

His cobalt eyes scanned over the screens that flashed red at him. It would be easier to figure out what  _ would _ work right now, rather than list all the systems that had failed. It was astounding that the castle was even still airborne (though he doubted it would be for long). 

“Oh thank the ancients,” Allura breathed out. Coran looked up in time to see Voltron streak by them, directly towards the battle cruiser. He didn’t voice her sentiments, but the relief that hit him was almost tangible.

“We have enough power to get to the ground smoothly for repairs,” Coran informed the Princess. He watched her take in this information, her blue eyes focused on a point somewhere above his head. Melanor used to do that when she was deep in thought.

Allura’s attention was suddenly grabbed by the warship again. “And how much fire power do we have to spare?” There was a bitterness, a darkness to her voice.

“Princess—“

“ _ They _ tried to take  _ my _ Paladins from me,” she said, her voice dripped with venom. “Put everything we can spare into the blasters.”

On Altea, there used to be these beautiful lava creatures. They seemed so sweet and docile, and their scales shimmered in the light of the volcanos. They were easily the most dangerous creatures that once roamed the planet. A single slice from one of their talons had enough venom to not only cut through thick Altean skin, but was practically a death sentence due to the fast-acting venom. In a way, that was what Allura reminded him off. She had more fight to her than either one of her parents had, which said a lot since her father used to be the Red Paladin.

“Yes, Princess.” Their descent to the ground wouldn’t be quite as graceful, but it would still do.

They both watched as Voltron twisted the cannon from the warship, and actually used it to bash a few of the smaller fighters that came nearer to them. “Locked onto target,” Allura said, her hands resting over the button projected in front of her. She waited. Waited until the exact moment that Voltron was out of the way. “Fire!”

Coran watched a single, powerful blast streak from the castle and slam into the warship, detonating the entire thing mid-air. By the time any rubble hit the surface of the Balmera, it was either ash, or too small to harm the poor creature.

Cheers from the Paladins echoed through the comms. Praises for Allura’s accuracy (with Lance’s excitement over a parade again, for whatever reason).

Coran honestly paid that little mind. The small celebrations were very important, he would never deny that. They still had a job to do though. They needed to get the castle to the ground, and then they needed to aid the poor Balmerans.

It made him sick to think about, but he knew there was no way to save this Balmera anymore. The damage was far too great, that it would be cruel to prolong the suffering of the people. They would have to relocate them. There really was no other choice.

He and Allura brought the castle to the surface of the Balmera. It was shaky, but they managed to do it without harming the poor creature more than it already was. Just because they couldn’t save it, didn’t mean either one of them wanted to hurt it more.

“The castle’s defenses are completely battered,” Allura noted. “Everything will need to be fully recharged before we can leave.”

Coran went to agree with her, when the alarms in the castle started to blare again. He leapt to his station and looked at the instruments that still worked. His throat squeezed slightly as he said, “There’s an unknown object incoming! It's about to crash into the Balmera!"

“A meteor?” Pidge asked.

“No.” Coran’s voice dropped gravely. “No, this is mechanical, with a biological signature as well. Highly similar to the robeast that landed on Arus.”

Though he wasn’t a Paladin and didn’t share a connection with them, Coran could practically feel the frustration that radiated off of all them at this news. The mice squeaked nervously, and tried to figure out exactly what they could do to get out of the line of fire. The castle’s systems were too badly compromised thanks to Sendak’s crystal, and needed far longer than normal to recharge. If whatever that was attacked them, there would be very little hope of survival.

His grandfather built this castle, and Coran didn’t want to see it destroyed, but he would pick Allura’s life over this thing any day, and was prepared to knock her out and run off the ship, if need be. Perhaps they could ask Alfor what it was that they should do at this point, but Coran doubted that the AI would be of much help right now against an unknown enemy.

“What the heck is that?” Lance’s voice echoed over the comms.

“Trouble,” Shiro answered sternly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late update. The last couple weeks have been super hectic between the store I worked at part-time closing for good, my grandmother's birthday coming up, as well as some cool zine stuff and other things, that I ended up missing the 21st! 
> 
> I won't lie, but inspiration for this whole rewrite idea is a bit on the low end right now, it's been almost 2 years since the show ended after all, but I will at the very least finish this story and *try* to push on with the rest. It's all I can do.
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who commented! I do appreciate it, even if I don't comment back! I'll try my hardest this time to get back to you all. 
> 
> I had *so* much fun writing in denial, disaster Klance in this chapter. 
> 
> All my socials:  
> [Tumblr](https://storiesbeyondthestars.tumblr.com/) |[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storiesbeyondthestars/) |[Stellar Sierras Instragram ](https://www.instagram.com/stellarsierras/) |[Twitter](https://twitter.com/storiesbeyond1)
> 
> Story betaed by: [Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon/pseuds/Silvamoon)


	11. Rebirth

The impact of the pod that carried the monster shook the Balmera to its core, and the creature cried out in agony. Hunk grimaced at the sound, and all the care they took to  _ not _ hurt the creature went right out the window.

“Please tell me there’s not a giant monster in there,” Hunk practically begged. His hands shook as he grasped the controls in front of him. Every muscle in his body was exhausted and pushed to the brink as it was. He wasn’t sure if he could handle another fight.

The link he shared with the other Paladins was still a new awareness, not yet ingrained enough to be a natural thing in the back of his mind. So he could feel the apprehension that came from the others as well. Everyone was  _ exhausted _ at this point. He wasn’t even sure who the spikes of fear came from anymore. Or the anger. Or the annoyance. Or who thought this was hilarious for some reason.

Never mind, Hunk was  _ pretty _ sure that last one was Lance. 

The loud screech of metal on metal echoed through the air. Hunk gritted his teeth together, and his stomach swooped as he realized that it was likely the sound of whatever it was about to leave the pod. 

“Please tell me it's empty!” he blurted out, even though he knew there was no chance of that. “Or full of space candy. One of those two. Either one is fine!”

Lance spluttered out a laugh, definitely the one who found this whole thing funny. “Can you  _ imagine _ ? That’s the true evil of the Galra Empire. They will attack us all, with  _ candy _ .” He laughed at his own joke.

“Is Lance okay?” Pidge asked across the comms, both concerned and annoyed. Her emotions twisted like vines on the edge of Hunk’s vision, and he could tell that she was absolutely  _ done _ with the entire situation.

“I’m fine, I’m good,” he assured them as he caught his breath. “Right as  _ rain _ . Just picturing Zarkon as a dentist.”

“Someone definitely needs a nap,” she replied, and Hunk  _ swore _ that he heard Shiro mutter ‘mood’ in the background, but there was no way to prove that. It would make sense though. He felt more exhausted than any of the others. “ _ Anyway _ , sorry Hunk. I’m getting massive biological readings from that. Mechanical ones too.”

He groaned. It was definitely another one of those monsters that they aptly dubbed ‘robeasts’. Hunk would rather be  _ anywhere _ else than here right now. Couldn’t they just scoop up the Balmerans and take off? Oh, right, the castle was grounded for a bit. 

Great. 

“If it's the same kind of monster that attacked us on Arus, we already know how to beat it,” Keith spoke up, and the screens around Hunk indicated that he activated Voltron’s sword with his bayard. Pidge followed suit and readied the shield. Where she was absolutely done with the situation, Keith felt like he was on autopilot or something. Like he refused to let himself be tired, panicked, or anything else.

At least  _ one _ of them could hold it together outside of Shiro.

“Paladins,” Allura said over the comms, her voice tinted with pure fury. She sounded like she was ready to take this thing on with her bare hands. “Our scans show that whatever it is has a high level of quintessence within it. It’s strong. Be careful.” 

That was just  _ peachy _ , now wasn’t it? 

Through the plume of dust, they could make out a faint figure. Hunk felt a deep nervousness twist around him, but he was too focused on the sight before him to figure out what it was. “That’s not candy.” They needed to  _ run _ . Why didn’t they  _ run _ ?

“Hold your ground!” Shiro ordered them. 

The creature suddenly lurched out of the dust, and the cannon on its chest fired at them. Pidge brought up the shield just in time, but they still skidded back several feet. Hunk pushed on the controls to keep them upright.

“It’s not candy!” he blurted out at the sight of the creature. It had long, thin arms with spots that glowed a sickly green. Its body was mostly made of silver and red metals, but its face made Hunk shiver. It was a grotesque white that housed a wide maw filled with rows upon rows of dagger-like teeth that were all probably longer than Hunk was tall. 

“That’s not the same monster,” Lance snorted out, his humour tinted with a spike of fear. It wasn’t that he actually found the situation  _ funny _ , he just couldn’t help himself. 

The robeast fired on them again, and they were quick to dodge out of the way. One of the blasts caught the Balmera, who groaned and shuddered under their feet.

“We need to draw its fire away from the Balmera's surface!" Shiro yelled across the comms. Hunk pushed the controls up, and Voltron leapt into the air, soaring around the creature. They dodged as much as they possibly could, but every single green spot on the creature’s arms shot lasers at them. It meant that they had to try and dodge the beams from several different trajectories.

Pidge grunted loudly as Green brought the shield up to defend them, but then a canon on the robeast’s chest opened up and fired on them. The force of the attack was enough to drive them to the ground again, and Voltron’s feet skidded over the Balmera’s surface. The ground cracked beneath their feet, and Hunk cringed. They were there to save the Balmera, not make it worse! 

“We can’t hold out!” Lance yelled as he tried to help keep Voltron upright, despite the force of the energy that pushed against them. 

“The shield is weakening!” Pidge yelled as they were knocked back farther. “If the shield sustains structural damage, we're done for!"

“Pidge is right!” Keith confirmed.

“Oh, so you listen when Pidge says it, huh?” Lance demanded. The complaint distracted him for only a split second, but it was enough for Voltron to stumble over one of the mountains on the Balmera. They landed with a resounding  _ boom _ that shook the ground beneath them. Somehow, despite this, Pidge managed to keep the shield up to protect them.

“Shiro!” Lance called out. “We need to fly. We need to lead this thing away from the Balmera!” That was a very good point. At least if they were in space, they wouldn’t injure the Balmera. 

“How?” Pidge argued. “It’ll shoot us down before we can get up there! There’s no guarantee that it’ll follow us as it is!”

Shiro was silent, but Hunk already knew that it was because he wanted to map out a plan. That was great and all, but they needed to think on their feet right now. 

“Lance is right,” Keith added. “It’s risky, but we can’t just lay here!”

"Okay, Team Voltron, disband!" Shiro exclaimed. “The lions are smaller targets, and we may be able to overwhelm this thing by sheer numbers alone.”

Hunk closed his eyes for a moment as Voltron pulled apart. He shook his head, a bit glad to just feel his own emotions instead of everyone else’s. He didn’t mind most of the time, but it was getting a bit intense.

Except, he could still feel that same foreboding as earlier. If anything, it felt even stronger. He wasn’t connected to the others anymore though, so what…

It hit Hunk hard as he dodged the lasers that came from the creature’s arms. It was  _ Yellow _ . His stomach dropped. If Yellow was freaked out about this thing, then it  _ had _ to be bad. 

“It’s okay, buddy,” Hunk spoke up and patted the controls. “We’ll be fine.”

“Who are you talking to?” Keith demanded, his voice strained as he careened around the lasers. Red was faster than the others, so he was a little more successful at dodging. 

“Yellow’s freaked out about this guy,” he admitted.

“You know, now that I think about it, Blue’s not happy either,” Lance added. The others all agreed on that, but it wasn’t a comfort to Hunk. That was even  _ worse _ . That meant that all the lions didn’t like this thing at all.

What exactly were they fighting? Because they weren’t like this on Arus.

“Keith,” Shiro barked out. “Red’s the fastest and I know you can handle those lasers. I need you to go in low and fast. Use your fire power on its legs.”

“Yes sir,” Keith replied in that matter-of-fact way of his, and Red shot forward without any hesitation.

Hunk had to admire that, really. Keith was  _ good _ at this whole being a paladin thing. Or at least, he was surprisingly good at following orders for someone that used to deviate from being the Golden Boy of their grade, to being the one that would speak back to any authority figure at the drop of a dime. 

Though maybe Hunk only saw that because Shiro only ever seemed to ask Keith to do things.  _ Someone _ was clearly playing favourites and that wasn’t cool at all. Not that Hunk wanted to be the kind of favourite that was asked to run towards a monster that wanted to kill them. 

On second thought, Keith could be the favourite. That was fine. 

Keith was an amazing pilot, probably the best one they had next to Shiro. He was able to zip through that asteroid field after Rolo and Nyma like no one else could. So it said a lot when the robeast managed to catch Red in its lasers. The lion flew backwards and slammed into the surface of the Balmera. 

Everyone yelled over the comms, but the sound that really caught Hunk’s attention was a sharp gasp from Keith. That was almost worse than if he screamed. Was he okay? Did he get thrown? No, that wasn’t possible. They were basically glued to the seats until they wanted to get up for whatever reason.

Hunk eyed the controls. If Keith was leaning the wrong way…

“I’m fine,” he gasped out. “That thing has too many weapons and moves too quickly.”

“We need to find its blind spot!” Lance called out across the comms.

“I don’t think this thing has a blind spot,” Pidge replied. “I’m scanning it, and it looks like those lasers double as eyes or sensors. There are dozens on there.”

“Oh great, laser eyes!” Hunk groaned as he moved away from them, but not nearly far enough. Panic rose up within him. There was no way they could fight this guy. No way they could win. 

So much for Voltron being the universe’s strongest weapon.

…

“Where does Zarkon get these beasts from?” Allura growled as she stared at the creature that chased after the lions. Before they fell asleep, the Galra didn’t have this kind of technology. Or, at least, they didn’t go around creating giant robot-creature based  _ things _ . Daibazaal was once rich with more minerals than any other world Allura ever came across, so the equipment to mine something like a Balmera didn’t surprise her. That didn’t explain what kind of technology was used to make this kind of monster. 

Her fingers twitched as her eyes followed the lions, and frustration welled up within her. They were sitting ducks, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Her mind rushed over solutions, but nowhere in her years of political training and combat lessons had she ever learned how to deal with a giant monster.

Coran muttered something behind her. His goal was to get at least some systems up again, though whether they would use that to go on the offensive or defensive was up in the air.

Allura grimaced as she watched the robeast’s feet dig into the Balmera, craters left in its wake. So close to it, she could  _ feel _ the pain the poor creature was in. It made her eyes prickle and burn, but she held back tears because now wasn’t the time for grief. Not until everyone was safe. Not until they could stop this. 

Except, there was no way to save the Balmera, was there? It was going to die, and there was nothing that they could do about that.

She took a deep breath and tried to focus herself. Her attention went to the screens around her, where she could see the dots that indicated the Balmera were still in the tunnels. They were out of harm’s way for now, but with the rate this was going, their home would be uninhabitable within a few varga, maybe less.

More souls that lost their home world because she wasn’t strong enough.

“Aha!” Coran cried out as he straightened up. “I think I’m onto something!” There was a flash of light behind her, and for a brief moment, the lights that they purposefully dimmed to save on power flared to life again. 

At that same moment, the robeast stopped its trek after the lions, and turned to face the castle instead. 

“Quiznak!” Coran cursed as the lights dimmed even more than before. “I thought I had it that time.” He went back to fiddle with the controls.

Allura’s mind whirred as she saw the robeast stare in their direction before it turned back to the lions. Her heart beat loudly in her chest when the pieces clicked together. “Coran, don’t!”

The other Altean froze and stared at her with wide eyes. “Don’t what, Princess?”

“I don’t think it can see,” she said as she watched it. “I think that it may have sensors that detect quintessence. It all but ignored us until the power kicked in again, and turned away when it went out.” Allura looked towards the lions that flew in the distance. 

Quintessence. That made sense. Quintessence was the key element to Altean Alchemy, and perhaps the Galra found another species that could use quintessence in a similar way. It wouldn’t be improbable for someone with similar abilities to pull off a feat to create something like that.

Its focus on the lions made sense too. Allura could sense quintessence better than anyone she knew, something that was attributed to her royal lineage and defined by her white hair. The lions were unlike anything else that Allura ever came across. They were blinding beacons of quintessence that shifted and changed in ways like nothing else. If that creature could sense quintessence, it made sense that it would go after them.

The castle’s power came from the Balmera crystal’s energy that was harnessed and repurposed, but with their energy levels so low, they must have blended in with the Balmera. That was good. That gave them a bit of camouflage.

She quickly pressed a couple buttons to open the comms. “Paladins, I don’t think it can see you!”

“It sure seems like it can see us!” Hunk cried out almost immediately.

“No, I think it’s tracking your quintessence, but it’s ignoring the castle for now,”

“Thank you, Princess,” Shiro answered. “I’m not sure what we can do with that, but it’s better than nothing.”

Allura bit her lip. Again, the want to be out there  _ with _ them rose up within her. She wanted to be in a lion to help them, to do  _ something _ . There was nothing she could do to help against that beast though. Their weapons weren’t online, and if they were, that meant that they were strong enough for the creature to detect them (if she was right about how it sensed things).

She closed her eyes as the Balmera cried out in pain when the robeast sliced at the ground as it tried to swipe at the Green Lion. The poor creature was in pure agony. There was a whisper behind the agony though. A plea of sorts.

“Coran,” she said as she turned to face him. “We need to get the Balmerans to the surface. We need to evacuate the Balmera.” Their castle was big enough to house everyone for a little while until they found them a new home. 

“I agree,” he said with a nod. “How to do it with that beast out there is another thing though.”

The Paladins would have no way to get to the Balmerans. They needed to fight that monster to keep it away from them. 

_ She _ could though. 

“Paladins,” she spoke into the comms again, her voice sure and steady. “You need to lure that monster away from here a little more. We’re going to evacuate the Balmerans to the castle.”

“What? Why?” Hunk asked.

Coran pressed a few buttons and an image popped up in front of him. “We don’t have much power, but there’s enough for rudimentary scans, and they’re showing the life energy draining from the Balmera.”

“ _ How _ ?” Pidge asked, incredulous. 

“Removing crystals from a Balmera is like removing a vital part of the mighty beast. The Balmera needs time to regenerate itself to stay healthy. With the Galra mining it the way they have, it’s likely been dying for a long time,” Coran explained, his voice tinted with sorrow.

Allura’s stomach lurched at that. It was highly likely that, once the Galra knew they would come back, they upped their production to secure as many crystals as possible. This creature sent after them was the last push the Balmera could take. 

“So, what’s gonna happen?” Hunk asked, his voice soft and worried despite the fact that he was under attack.

Coran was silent for a moment before he spoke somberly. “Its core will collapse, destabilizing the entire skeletal structure. Anything or anyone remaining on the Balmera at that point will be crushed into dust."

A heavy silence descended over them, despite the circumstances that they were all in.

“How long before its core collapses?" Shiro asked with a grunt.

"Probably a matter of hours.” Coran sighed. “The mighty organism willingly gives itself to all, but not all return its kindness."

Allura bristled a slightly as she straightened her shoulders. Now was not the time for mourning or eulogies. "Then our time is short. We'll evacuate the planet. We need to get all the Balmerans to the Castle of Lions, and up into space, before the planet implodes." She could do that. She could at least save the  _ people _ . 

"Okay, that sounds like a good plan, but how do you plan on getting to the Balmerans with that monster-thingy on the surface even if it wants quintessence?” Hunk asked before he squeaked enough to make the mice perk up slightly.

“Watch it, Hunk!” Pidge cried out. “And you’ll need a distraction.”

"We'll lure it farther away in our lions like Allura said. With it distracted, Allura and Coran will load all the citizens into the castle,” Shiro ordered.

"Or we could load Balmerans into our Lions a few at a time and shuttle them to the ship. No engaging ferocious laser-eye guy. How long would that take?" Lance suggested. It really wasn’t a bad idea, but not at all a doable one. How did he even plan on getting away from the robeast in the first place? He really needed to learn to think more.

“Days?” Coran suggested. “You only have hours.”

"Look, we don't need to beat this thing. We just need to bait it away from the ship. Provoke and evade,” Shiro assured them.

“Like we’ve been doing?” Pidge snapped back, and Allura could very easily hear the sarcasm in her voice.

"Yeah, here’s the thing,” Hunk spoke up. “Move, Yellow! Move! Wow, that was close! Anyway, we’re pretty good at this and it really sucks. But like, if—if this is what it takes to save Shay and everyone on the planet, then I'm in."

“One problem,” Keith noted. “How do you get the Balmerans to come up to the castle?”

Allura waited for an opening amongst the chatter, and leapt at the chance before anyone else could say anything. “I’m going down.”

“Princess, no!” Coran cried out immediately. “It’s too dangerous!”

“You need to get the castle ready so we can leave at a moment’s notice,” Allura replied sternly. “Paladins, you are going to lead that thing away from here so it doesn’t notice the castle again.”

“Your quintessence is enough to power a castle! It’ll notice you!” Pidge insisted, her voice fearful.

The worry both touched Allura, and annoyed her greatly. “Not if my Paladins are distracting it.” She doubted them time and time again, but the thought that she might have lost them earlier was just too much. They were  _ her _ Paladins. They weren’t her father’s or anyone else’s, and if she wanted the rest of the universe to believe in them, she would first have to do that herself.

“You heard her,” Shiro said. “Let’s go!”

Allura didn’t wait to hear what the others said. She made her way down towards one of the many exits from the ship. She heard Coran scramble after her, and she braced herself for what she knew would come.

“This is too dangerous, Princess,” he insisted just as she predicted. Allura didn’t stop to consider his words though. Instead, she kept going forward, eyes locked on the exit. “Perhaps we should take a moment to talk about other options.”

She came to an abrupt stop and spun around to face him. “I wanted to fight.”

Coran was clearly taken back. “Pardon?”

“You’ve been with me my entire life,” Allura said, and she knew that was why he worried for her so much. She couldn’t blame him, but she didn’t have to like it either. “Do you remember what I always said I wanted to be when I was younger? It wasn’t the Queen of Altea.”

He searched her face for a moment, as if looking for answers. “You wanted to be a Paladin.” 

Allura felt the corners of her eyes burn as she fought back tears of frustration. “I wanted to take the lions to fight Zarkon, not hide away. That was what I wanted to do.” Her fingers curled into fists as she remembered that her father used his knowledge of quintessence to put her to sleep. He did it to protect her, she knew that. But he also completely dismissed her opinion on the matter. 

“Princess…”

Now was not the time to think of her father though. “But I am not a Paladin. I was never worthy enough for one of the lions.” That hurt a lot. While other little Alteans played dress up and princess, she was an actual princess that played paladin and pretended to fight. One time Blaytz even let her play with the blue bayard (though her father had not been pleased). She wanted that more than anything when she was younger, but it was not what the Ancients had planned for her. “However, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to wait when I can do something to save the people here. Their planet may be dying, but they don’t have to go with it. I’m going down. You can prepare the castle to be ready to power up at a moment’s notice so we can leave quickly, or you can protest more. What will it be?”

Allura would not back down this time. She adored Coran, she never knew a time without him, but she would not be swayed by sentimental pleas. 

An odd expression passed over his features, and if Allura didn’t know any better, she would have sworn that there was a twitch of a smile hidden by his moustache. He straightened his back and nodded. “I will prepare the castle. Please, be careful out there.”

Relief rushed over her that Coran was going to work with her instead of against her. She didn’t  _ want _ to have to be that abrasive with him, but she would if she needed to. They already wasted too much time on this conversation. “I will. I’ll contact you when I’m on the ground.” She opened one of the doors just in time to see Voltron, not the separate lions, flying off in the distance with the monster right behind. 

Worry hit her hard, but Allura chose to believe in the Paladins. They did their part of the plan, now it was up to her. 

In the castleship, there were many different kinds of pods and vehicles that could be used for all different kinds of travel needed. From water-based vehicles, to ones made for scaling cliffs, they had pretty much everything.

Allura’s favourite were the quin-cycles though. They were excellent for speed and agility, not to mention they could generate temporary, protective barriers. Despite that, she still fixed her helmet to her suit.

A thrill rushed through her as she got onto the quin-cycle. Her eyes stayed glued to the door as it started. She watched for Coran, who took another cursory look around, and nodded at her. She pushed forward on the controls, and she was off.

The quin-cycle glided effortlessly in flight mode until she reached the ground, where it automatically swapped over so that she could stay low to the terrain. Allura manipulated it with ease, and zoomed around the tall hills on the Balmera’s back towards the mines. 

The robeast was so far off that Allura couldn’t even feel the vibration of its movements anymore. What she could feel was the sickness and despair of the Balmera, and it only motivated her more.

She left her quin-cycle hidden when she reached the edge of the mine. “I’m here,” she told everyone else, but didn’t care to listen for a reply. Her eyes were locked onto a family of Balmera just a little below the surface, and she was pretty sure that she knew who they were.

“Who are you?” the tall male demanded. He was fierce, but Allura didn’t even blink an eye at his demeanor. 

“You are the princess that Hunk spoke of!” the female cried out. Ah, that must be Shay.

“I am. My name is Princess Allura of Altea.” She nodded towards them.

“What is happening?” Shay’s father asked. From where they stood, it was impossible to see Voltron’s battle with the beast.

“There's a monster up there that Zarkon sent to destroy us,” Allura answered them honestly, because there was no point to try and hide the truth from them.

"A monster?” Shay’s eyes went wide with horror. “Will Zarkon's savagery never abate? Perhaps our people were never meant to be free." She lowered her head sadly.

Ire rose up within Allura as she bristled at the thought. How  _ dare _ Zarkon do this to these people? The Galra of all people used to know the horrors of invaders who tried to take their resources. Daibazaal was once rich with them. Their ability to fight back is what made them so fierce. Yet now he did to others what had been done to his people.

“You  _ are _ ,” she spat out, much more angrily than she initially meant to. “Your people were strong and proud once, and you can be again.” She thought for a moment on how to word this properly. “Zarkon’s power grows with every planet he conquers. I saw it for many of my teenage years, but with every planet he loses, with every person ready to fight back, he becomes weaker. This is only the beginning. The Paladins will defeat him. And we want your help to do so.”

“They can beat a monster like the one here? Like Zarkon?”

Allura wasn’t sure, if she was being honest, but she didn’t want to tell that to Shay, who looked so hopeful. All they needed was one Balmeran to truly understand them, to reach them halfway. The others would follow. She didn’t want to discourage her for that reason alone.

She was saved from answering though, as the ground beneath her feet shook and the Balmera groaned loudly. 

Shay’s grandmother placed her hand on the ground, a frown on her features. "That great noise comes from the Balmera itself. Our home crumbles beneath our feet. The Balmera is dying."

“It is,” Allura agreed. This was one battle that they were going to lose, but they could still win the war. “You can contact the other Balmerans, yes?”

“Yes, of course,” the elderly woman replied.

“I need you to tell them to come this way. We need to get you onto the castle,” she insisted.

Shay took a step back, yellow eyes widened in shock. "We can, but I know not what they'll say. Leave the planet? Our home?"

“We must try.” They had to. The Balmerans would all die if they did not.

The world around her shook again, and this time Allura couldn’t hold herself upright. She stumbled into the wall, and just barely managed to hold herself up. When she got her bearings back, she looked to the family again, only to see their dejected faces. Her heart dropped. “What is it?” 

"All Balmerans give thanks for the kindness you and the Paladins bestowed upon us, but, alas, we cannot take leave of our home,” Shay explained to her, sad but accepting.

“What?” Allura tried to hide how shaky her voice was, but knew that she failed.

"If our great Balmera's life cycle is over because of us, then our desire is to stay with it until the end,” Shay explained, as if it was a great honour to pass with the Balmera. Fury rushed through Allura. They would never survive. There was no honour in this kind of death, not when those who killed their Balmera would live on to do the same to many others.

“We contacted the others, and all agree. It's not right that you risk your lives for us. Please, go away. We ask for no more guilt and shame upon us,” Rax said to her.

"It is our wish. The wish of all Balmerans,” Shay added softly.

“No!” Allura burst out, her air of poise all but forgotten as her eyes prickled and burned. “I  _ won’t _ give up on you! Any of you! No matter the circumstances!” She would fight, even if no one else would. 

They ran and hid once, and Zarkon threw the universe into ruins. She would not do it again. Even if she had to fight every battle on her own like the Paladin she always wanted to be.

She opened her mouth to speak again, but Shay interrupted her. "But we do not ask this of you. Please!" 

“I have heard your words. Now let me speak mine.” She spoke sternly, and would not take no for an answer. Allura wanted to stand tall and proud, but had to keep her hand firmly placed on the rock wall to stay upright from the shifting and shaking of the ground beneath her feet. “I want to talk to the Balmerans. Can you get a message to them from me?"

"There is no need to speak for you.” Shay’s grandmother pointed towards her hand. “You have a unique power within. The Balmera will carry your words.”

She stared at her hand for a moment, and wondered just how it was that she didn’t notice the soft glow around it at first. Allura knew that, as a royal Altean, her quintessence was different from many other things and therefore interacted with them in unexpected ways. It always startled her though.

"Speak your heart, child. All can hear you.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, and urged her words through both her lips and her mind. “Balmerans, this is Princess Allura. You don't know me, but I am here to help. I know what it's like to watch your home planet die. For I come from planet Altea, a planet that has long been destroyed by the Galra. But I refuse to give up. And now, you all have the same choice. You can decide now to devote your lives to making sure this never happens to another planet. I am eternally sorry for what has happened to the Balmera, but I beg you, do not let its dying be in vain. Honour the Balmera's death by refusing to give up. Join me in my fight against the Galra."

She opened her eyes again as the elderly Balmeran placed her hand beside her own, a warm smile on her face. "Your words have touched our hearts. We will come with you.”

Ther relief that hit Allura was so strong that she almost toppled over. She held her tears at bay and said, “Thank you.”

“No, thank you. You've given us reason to hope again."

She would not cry. Not then and there. Instead, she focused on the task at hand. Allura straightened her shoulders, held herself tall, and said, "Everyone, head to the caves just under the surface."

They were going to get everyone out of there.

…

Hunk was going to throw up. He held out this long, but he was going to lose it. There was only so long they could fight this  _ thing _ before it wore them down. Sure, they weren’t physically fighting, but it was  _ stressful _ . 

Plus, there was the whole connection to the lions thing. Physical attacks weren’t so bad, but when the energy hit them, Hunk felt that. Not enough to harm him, but it was still super uncomfortable! 

Yellow tried to soothe him, he really did. He was still jittery about this creature, and Hunk knew that all the other lions were as well. That was more than a little bit terrifying. 

A rush of excitement hit him hard, and Yellow sent a ton of feelings towards him. A moment later, the keyhole console for his bayard rose up before him. Huh. That was weird.

“What are you trying to tell me?” Hunk asked as he summoned his bayard. He could hear Lance scream over something, hear Pidge yell back at him, but in that moment, all of their voices were drowned out and it was only him and Yellow’s sturdy presence.

“Guys!” He burst out as the idea of what Yellow wanted to do settled into his mind. ”Guys, something’s happening here! I think there’s a way to take down all those laser eyes at once."

“How?” Pidge asked before she squawked as Green was jerked up roughly to block. 

"Do you remember how Voltron formed that sword with Keith's Bayard? I think my Lion's telling me I can do the same thing with mine!” Hunk stared at the bayard in his hand. It was a rather innocent thing to look at, wasn’t it? No sharp edges. Nothing to choke on. Completely unassuming. Yet it held more power than anything else Hunk had to train with in the Garrison.

“Are you sure?” Keith asked, though he didn’t sound skeptical. It was more like he wanted to double check with him. 

“Let’s find out!” He inserted the bayard into the key console. “Form thingy!”

Energy rushed through Voltron, and Hunk watched with excitement as a screen popped up before him, an illustration of a shoulder cannon formed before his eyes. A second screen popped up with a scan of the robeast, and little targets locked onto the laser-eye-thingies. 

“Are you guys seeing this?” he asked, and practically bounced in his chair with excitement. 

“Roger that,” Keith replied.

“Let’s see what this thing can do,” Shiro added, and he almost sounded excited too. “Engage!”

…

It went without saying that Keith was  _ tired _ . He wasn’t about to complain or anything, but he really wanted to pass out in a secure little spot and just stay there. He had memories of his father calling him his little kitten, because he could fall asleep anywhere just like one, and Shiro used to tease him about the same thing. 

That said, he didn’t let on just how exhausted he was. Red could feel it though. She was still so jittery about this robeast, but did her best to try and soothe him. To assure him that this would be over soon. That they would win.

So the sight of the robeast as it jerked around while assaulted by their laser canon was borderline beautiful. He didn’t want to take any chances though. As soon as the assault of lasers ended, he slammed his bayard into the keyhole, and created the sword.

Shiro caught on almost immediately. Voltron surged forward, and sliced clean through the creature. The two parts of the robeast fell to the ground and twitched before it went still.

“Holy crow!” Lance cried out. “We did it!” The shared relief amongst the five of them was so strong that Keith swore it was about to bring him to tears. 

Keith slumped back in his seat and patted the console. “We did it, Red.” Everyone else chatted cheerfully, and maybe that was why he was the first to notice it. The dread that steadily rose up within and around him. 

His eyes snapped open as he straightened his spine, and looked at all the different screens in front of him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and yet, the dread grew to the point where it was almost tangible.

“Alright, whoever’s ruining the vibe better stop that,” Lance said. “Keith.”

“It’s not me!” he snapped back, ready to fight him on this, because something was wrong. Really wrong.

Before Lance could respond, Pidge interjected. “Don’t start!”

“It’s Voltron,” Shiro realized, his voice quiet. “This is Voltron feeling this way.”

Keith looked around him, and realized that Shiro was right. Red’s presence was always warm and fiery, and that was still there, but there was something else too.

Red was afraid. 

The live feed to outside popped up in front of Keith without any prompting, and he could only stare at the robeast with confusion. They cut it clean in half, and it certainly seemed dead.

Keith was going to be  _ pissed _ if this thing multiplied like a hydra or something. He might actually pitch a fit. He studied the creature closely, but the only movement he could see was the way a dark substance slowly pooled around it. He grimaced at the sight of the blood, but couldn’t understand why Red felt so frightened.

Then the blood moved. Not in the way where it was slowly spreading, but rather like a twitch. That was the only warning they got before the liquid launched itself off of the ground and towards them.

He cried out in alarm as Red jerked herself backwards. A skull-splitting pain crashed through him as the lions abruptly pulled themselves apart from one another. He gasped at the sensation of their bonds being torn apart, a deep, hollow emptiness left in their place.

Through watery eyes, Keith looked back down and watched in horror as the darkly coloured substance twitched and twisted below them, wrapping around itself as it slowly formed something that looked like a four-legged animal.

Its mouth opened, and Keith almost threw up when he saw rows upon rows of viciously glinting teeth that shouldn’t have been there, because they could see through this thing and there was nothing else visible.

Twisting tentacles lashed out at them, but the lions were much faster. They flew out of its reach, and from that gaping maw, an awful sound echoed across the Balmera. Keith shuddered, his fingers curled around the controls. What the  _ fuck _ was this thing?

…

What the  _ quiznak _ was that thing? 

Coran stared from the castle as the strange (to put it mildly) creature came out of the robeast. His eyes followed it as it twisted – like it was made from both a thick, dense liquid, and energy itself – and something at the back of his mind screamed at him.

He heard of something like this before, hadn’t he? It was a long time ago. Long before the war with the Galra began. 

Alfor spoke of a beast on Daibazaal. One that they faced together when Voltron was new. A monster that came from the tear between universes. One that sounded an awful lot like this creature. Except, Voltron destroyed it back then, and Daibazaal was destroyed to seal the rift so it wouldn’t tear the fabric of their reality apart.

So where had  _ this _ thing come from? If it was even the same thing. If it wasn’t, well, the universe was vast and Coran had no illusions that the majority of it was a mystery to them. There could be many creatures that defied their knowledge of existence. 

A shout escaped Coran’s lips as the creature reared back and then slammed into the Balmera. The planet shook violently as an  _ unholy _ cry of pain echoed from every inch of the already dying Balmera.

Coran’s heart dropped and he pulled up the sensors, scanners, and everything that he could. The quakes of the Balmera ceased to end, the sounds unbearable. He took one look at the creature, and the schematics before him, to realize what was happening.

_ It was eating the Balmera _ .

They needed to leave.  _ Now _ .

“Princess!” He cried out as he turned on all the comms. There was no time to switch the frequencies, and he didn’t care if some Galra heard him right now.

“What’s happening?” Allura asked, her voice terrified. “Coran, the Balmera is terrified and in so much pain. What is happening?”

“Something came out of the beast. I don’t know what. It appears to be consuming the Balmera.”

“Consum— _ where is Voltron _ ?” Allura asked. The dot that indicated where she was moved closer to the castle. 

He didn’t answer that. Coran heard the confusion from the Paladins who seemed to want to  _ comfort _ their lions, and who weren’t really in control of them right now. The fact that  _ Voltron _ didn’t want to be near this thing only made it worse. “I have your position, and I will ready the loading dock for the Balmerans. Your speech appears to have worked. Most are moving towards the surface.” 

Coran made sure he had his comm in his ear as he ran to set up the transport pod. There was absolutely no time to waste. 

Relief swept through him as he caught sight of Allura with a large group of Balmerans. The relief only lasted for a moment as the ground shook with violent ferocity, and the equipment the Galra used to mine the lands started to fall. In turn, boulders raced down the tunnels in a swift rockslide.

“No!” Allura screamed. She made to run to the entrance of the mines, but Coran grabbed her arm. 

He felt heartless, but he couldn’t let her run back. “Any projections we had are gone. The Balmera will collapse at any moment. We must go.”

“But the Balmerans!” She all but pleaded as her eyes watered. 

Rax had his hand against the ground, no doubt in communication with the others. He grimaced and said, “They’re trapped. What can be done?”

They had absolutely no time to dig the other Balmerans out. They barely had time to get to the safety of the castle. It was likely that they wouldn’t have enough power to get far from the Balmera as it collapsed, but he calculated that they had enough to be able to get out of its gravitational pull. Only if they left  _ now _ .

“Paladins,” Allura spoke up. “You need to stop this creature!”

…

Lance heard Allura loud and clear. He really did. And yeah, he agreed with her, they did have to do something.

At the same time though, that was nice of her to say and all, but she wasn’t the one inside of a terrified lion.

“Blue,” he spoke to the lion. “Come on girl, talk to me. What’s wrong with that thing?”

“Outside of being an Eldritch Abomination?” Pidge asked over the comms, her voice hysterical. 

“Yeah, that.” What the hell was this thing? To make the lions of  _ Voltron _ , said to be the most powerful weapon in the universe, this terrified? The thought nearly made Lance hysterical, because nothing about this thing made sense.

“Come on girl, we can’t leave the Princess and the Balmerans alone with that thing,” he said to Blue. It took every bit of effort he had to keep her in the atmosphere of the Balmera. Every tiny emotion screamed that she wanted to speed off to the other side of the universe. 

What the hell were they dealing with?

…

“Have you evacuated yet?”

“The Balmeras are trapped. You need to distract that thing.”

“The lions aren’t exactly having any of that right now.”

Altea didn’t have oceans, seas, lakes, or anything like that (their water was deep beneath the ground), but Allura had the opportunity to experience it on another planet she visited. The way sound was muffled beneath the waves was a strange experience (not that she was under the water long at the time). Even stranger still was the fact that she felt like she was underwater at the moment too. She could hear the people that spoke around her, but it was muffled and distant.

Horror twisted within her, because Allura had no idea what to do. Literally nothing she came across in the past, none of her extensive lessons, mentioned strategies for if an abomination  _ ate _ the planet they were on. Even Weblums were pretty easy to see coming. They were often detected days or even weeks beforehand, so evacuations were never like this. 

“We’ve lost.” Those words snapped Allura out of her hazy despair as ire rose up within her instead. Her fingers curled into fists. She wanted to fight. All her life she wanted to fight, and hated when people gave up. Her educators scolded her, because it wasn’t the Altean way, but she didn’t care back then. Now, that meant a little more to her, but not in this scenario.

She wasn’t going to save who she could and then leave the rest to die just because it benefitted more people in the long one. She didn’t care about the bigger picture. She cared about  _ these _ people. “We can’t give up!” She  _ wouldn’t _ give up.

“But what can be done?” Shay asked as she looked towards the ground.

What could they do? Allura repeated the question in her head. Her eyes turned to the sky as she watched the Red Lion swoop down quickly to blast fire at the creature and zoom away again. The Paladins were scared. The lions were scared. Blue dove down next to do the same with her ice beam. They were scared, but they still fought.

She could fight too. Her attention turned to her hands. She was not a paladin. It was not in the Ancients’ plans of her, but she wasn’t weak. She had to be able to do something. Her father was incredibly powerful with quintessence, but he wasn’t born into the power the way she was. All Alteans could access it, but those born into the royal family were different. They were special. She had more power in her fingertips than dozens of other Alteans put together. 

“The Balmera,” Shay spoke up, her voice in awe. “The ground beneath your mighty ship appears healed. But, how?”

Allura’s head snapped towards the ground under the Castle of Lions. Her lips parted with surprise, because the ground under it glittered with microscopic crystals.

“The castle,” she breathed out, her mind going over everything. They had a healthy Balmera crystal in their castle, but it wasn’t just that. There were old Altean devices that altered the energy, made it potent and useful in many different ways. Perhaps one of those processes helped?

“Not just the castle,” Shay’s grandmother said. “I believe it has to do with you.”

Allura faced her, unsure of what she meant. “Me?” Now that she thought about it, she  _ did _ power up the castle with her own energy earlier to make a wormhole jump. Coran could do it too, but her energy was more powerful. 

“It’s true,” Coran agreed as he stared at the ground. “Your energy from the castle and the crystal seem to have healed this part of the Balmera.” He shook his head. “Perhaps if the entire Balmera was like this, it would be strong enough to fight that beast off on its own.”

Her mind ran over that information and she looked down to her hands. “Alteans once learned a ritual from Balmeras. To give back our own person energy in place of the crystals that we took. The Galra have only been taking, and it has made the Balmera unable to protect itself.” She looked up again, her face set and stern. “It’s time we give back.”

“You don’t have the strength to heal the entire Balmera,” Coran interjected, face screwed up with worry. “Even if you were to use the crystal and the power already in the castle as an amplifier, it could take more energy than you possess. You may—you might not live through it. I beg you.”

His eyes were almost haunted, and Allura’s heart squeezed for him. She had to do this though. “I know you’re scared for me, Coran, but I must try. This thing—this thing the lions are  _ afraid _ of is eating the Balmera alive. We’re not sure if this will defeat it, but I won’t give up. I will do everything within my power, even if there’s only a small chance.” She met his gaze sternly. “No more running, Coran. No more.”

He stared at her and nodded his head. “All you need to do is focus your power within the Balmera.”

“We will help,” Shay said quickly. Her family nodded in agreement. 

Allura knelt down on the surface of the Balmera. It shook and shuddered with agony beneath her fingers as she pressed her hands to the rock. She closed her eyes and focused.

Alteans that were married into the royal family were exposed to the maximum amount of quintessence that they could be before it corrupted them, so they’d be strong enough to keep Altea safe with their partner. Those that were born with this power were much stronger though.

If her father could do this, when he wasn’t born into this power, she could do it too.

The ground beneath her fingers started to glow as she willed the Balmera to grow stronger. To fight back against the beasts that wanted to kill it. There was a flicker in return, a hope, and perhaps some relief, followed by determination. 

None of them, including the Balmera itself, were going to die without a fight.

…

Shiro didn’t remember his time with the Galra Empire. He saw flashes of things, and woke up sweating from nightmares that he knew had to do with that time from the way his arm was always lit up. It was his greatest fear that he’d accidentally strike one of the other Paladins in a moment like that. He wasn't sure he could handle being responsible for scaring one of them

That wasn’t the point though. The point was that he didn’t remember much, but he always got a nagging feeling when he  _ thought _ he should know something. It happened with the last robeast. It happened with Sendak’s ship, and mentions of Matt.

As he stared down at the abomination below them, there was nothing. No flicker of recognition or déjà vu. Whatever this thing was, he never came across it before, of that he was certain.

That also meant he had next to no idea how to defeat it, and the only help that Black offered was to run. To escape.

“You’re stronger than that blob,” Shiro muttered to Black. He stayed quiet so none of the others would hear him.

_ Death. _

Shiro started as the word abruptly entered his mind.

_ Destruction. _

Okay, Black  _ really _ didn’t like this thing, whatever it was. His lion wasn’t just scared though, it was angry and confused. 

“Look!” Pidge cried out all of a sudden, and though Shiro couldn’t see her, he still instinctively knew where to look. Pale cyan light slowly spread across the surface of the Balmera, coming from beneath the castle. He could see Allura kneeling with her hands pressed against the ground, the Balmerans that managed to escape the tunnels did the same.

“What are they doing?” Keith asked, voice filled with wonder.

Shiro wasn’t sure how to answer that. As the light touched the crystals on the Balmera’s surface, they began to glow brilliantly, and in turn, the light spread faster. Crystals grew out of the ground and rose up towards the sky, glinting brilliantly in the light from the nearby sun.

“I think they’re healing it,” Shiro said in awe. His mind flashed back to the healing pods and what they could do for people. His fingers twitched a bit, and he had to wonder just what the limits of Altean technology and magic was. 

As distracted as he was, Shiro momentarily forgot about the monster that made a valiant attempt to  _ eat _ the Balmera. Forgot about it until it let out an enraged shriek. His head snapped in that direction, and horror lanced through him as it lashed out towards the castle, a tentacle-like limb slammed into the ground not far from where Allura was. The creature pulled itself back, and tried to strike again, when crystals exploded out of the ground around it. It screamed in a way that gave Shiro goosebumps as the crystal enclosed its entire body even as it thrashed and tried to escape. 

Shiro waited with baited breath, but the creature couldn’t get away from the crystals. They spread over it’s entire body, and just like that, everything seemed to freeze. As the light on the Balmera faded away, he waited for the creature to break from its confines, yet, nothing happened. The fissure where it tore chunks out of the Balmera’s surface was patched with gleaming crystals, and more Balmerans came to the surface. 

“Is it over?” Pidge asked, her voice so small that it made Shiro nearly tear up.

Before he could answer, Coran cried out Allura’s name over the comms. 

…

“Allura!” She heard Coran’s faint cry as she fell forward onto the ground, unable to keep herself up anymore. 

Exhaustion crept into her very core, and she felt so, so cold. It reminded her of when her father put her to sleep the last time she saw him, but she lacked the energy to panic over that. Though her mind wildly thought about how she didn’t want to wake up in 5000 years.

Hands with tough skin gripped her and pulled her up so that her face wasn’t smushed against the ground beneath her. Shay loomed over her, a concerned expression in her eyes, and somehow that helped ground Allura. She was so,  _ so _ tired, but she didn’t want to sleep yet. She wouldn’t let herself sleep yet. “Did it work?”

Shay made a sound that was almost like a sob, and her grandmother appeared behind her. “Yes. The Balmera lives, and thanks you greatly.”

Though her vision was blurry, Allura would always recognize Coran’s vibrant orange hair. He said something to Shay that she couldn’t exactly hear, almost like she was under water again. Still, she didn’t protest as he picked her up, cradled in his arms. Alteans didn’t have super strength or anything, but they were a decently strong species. She could feel his arms strain a bit under her weight, but knew without a doubt that Coran would never drop her.

Allura shifted, her fingers digging into his shirt as she muttered, “Don’t put me in a pod. I don’t want to. Please. I don’t want to sleep again.” 

“I won’t, Princess,” Coran assured her, his voice low but clear. “I promise you, you will  _ not _ go into a pod unless you need to. And if you do, you  _ will _ wake up as soon as you can. You won’t sleep again. I promise.”

Allura was glad that he understood her, and relaxed against him as he carried her.

“What just happened?” she could hear Hunk ask over the comms.

“Is Allura okay?” Shiro interjected before anyone could answer him, his voice filled with worry.

“Exhausted,” Coran answered swiftly. “She’s in desperate need of rest. I have never once seen such a thing attempted, let alone succeed. With how low the ship’s energy is, it should not have been possible.”

Allura hummed a bit at that. “It was not just me.” She alone would have died, of that, Allura was certain. It was the Balmerans, in the end, that saved the Balmera. Her quintessence gave her a connection to the creature, but it was nothing compared to theirs’. Balmerans taught Alteans how to exchange their quintessence for crystals, she just had to bring that knowledge back to them after generations of Galra suppressing it. 

Her eyes fluttered as Coran went back to the castle. She wondered how many other worlds were like this one. Not just the destruction, but worlds where their own knowledge and history was lost. Perhaps they could help that way too. Alteans collected histories, and the castle had a vast library. Maybe they could give that back to others, give them the opportunity to be the people they wanted to be without Galra control.

The Balmera had been moments away from death, but by working together, they managed to save it. That alone gave Allura more hope than anything else. They saved the Balmera, and maybe, just maybe, it was the first step to save the rest of the universe as well.

Allura nodded off before they even got to her room. 

…

“Hey, does anyone else’s lion feel weird still?” Hunk asked over the comms as they approached the castle. “Cause, like, Yellow is all twitchy and still wants nothing to do with that thing in the crystal.”

Lance hummed in acknowledgement as he looked around at the crystal enshrouded creature. A shiver rushed up his spine at the unnatural look of it, stretched out thin and twisted beneath a surface of precious stone, its maw still wide open. He knew that aliens could really look like  _ anything _ , and that they didn’t have to work by the same rules as humans did at all, but it still freaked him out to no end.

He completely got why Blue didn’t want anything to do with it either.

“Whatever that is must be what’s powering and controlling the robeasts,” Pidge spoke up. He could tell by her tone of voice alone that she was already determined to figure out this new puzzle before her. “Almost like they’re a robot-meat suit for those things, but that doesn’t make much sense. Not to mention the lions freaking out either means it gives off bad vibes or they knew what it was 5000 years ago. Though Coran sounded confused too. Hmm. Maybe we need to experiment to see what it is?” 

She was going to ramble, and in a way, Lance found it kind of endearing. He didn’t  _ understand _ it, but it was always nice to hear people talk about things that caught their interest. That said, he really didn’t want to listen to it right now. His head felt like it was going to explode, and he really wanted a drink, something to eat, and a nap. 

So he interjected and said, “I love me some horror movies and all, so like, one of the worst things we can do is poke and prod at the evil, Balmeran-eating monster that’s currently trapped in the magical crystals.” 

Someone snorted, and Lance wasn’t quite sure who it was, but he still puffed up a little bit. Blue responded to him just slightly, and the smallest blip of amusement washed over him. She was still so shaken though, that it was really unsettling.

“Come on, let’s get the lions back to the castle,” Shiro ordered them, and Lance was glad that someone was on the ball. 

They headed towards the castle and their individual hangars, when Red suddenly collided with Blue. “Keith! Learn to fly your lion!”

“It’s not my fault!” he snapped back. When he next spoke, his voice was much calmer. “Red, come on. What’s wrong?”

“What’s up?” Shiro asked him.

“She won’t go to her hangar,” he explained. “Being really stubborn about it.”

Lance snorted and was about to make fun of him again, when he realized that Blue too had drifted away from hers. “Uh…Houston, we have a problem.”

“Green wants to go with Black,” Pidge added. She sounded incredibly surprised by this revelation. 

“I think that’s what Red wants too,” Keith agreed.

“Is that what you want?” Lance asked Blue. He felt her confirmation like it was his own, but was still no less surprised. “Huh.”

“Yellow too,” Hunk responded.

“Alright.” Shiro spoke up. “Black says there’s enough room in his hangar for them all. I guess we’re all going back there.”

Blue seemed to practically fly herself as they approached Black’s hangar. Now that the lions weren’t struggling to go one way while they tried to pilot them another, everything went smoothly. No one crashed into one another, and they all easily got back inside.

Lance patted the back of his chair and said, “It’s okay girl, I’m here for you.” He knew that she appreciated it, even as he exited to meet up with the others.

A part of him was glad to see that everyone else looked just as exhausted as he felt. Even Shiro, who always had the look of a hero about him, seemed like he had seen better days. 

“What was that thing?” Pidge repeated her earlier train of thought. 

“The lions are made of a metal alloy like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” Hunk replied. “Way stronger than diamond or anything else on Earth. Dunno about the rest of space yet. But maybe they know that kind of thing could hurt them too?”

“Maybe,” she said thoughtfully. 

“I don’t know about you, but I want to be one thousand feet away from that thing, pronto,” Lance spoke up. He said it as a joke, but he meant it too. He didn’t know what that thing was, and honestly, he didn’t really want to think about it right now. He just knew he’d see those teeth in his nightmares for a long time. 

“Wait a second, what about the Balmerans? And Allura?” Hunk asked, brow furrowed with confusion. 

Guilt hit Lance hard, because he honestly felt so tired that for a brief moment, the only thing that existed was the five of them, their lions, and the monster trapped outside. 

“Allura will be fine,” Shiro assured them. “You heard Coran as much as anyone else. The Balmerans…” His lips tipped up into a smile. “Why don’t you go see for yourself? I’m sure that there’s someone specific that would like to see you.”

Hunk spluttered a bit, and if Lance would have had a drink on him, he probably would have spat it out in disbelief at the fact that Shiro was the one to tease him about Shay now. 

There was something truly priceless about that. Something that lightened the air enough for Hunk to square his shoulders and say, “You know what, yeah, I’m going to find Shay and her family.” 

“He didn’t say anything about Shay,” Pidge pointed out as she followed him, nose buried in the different screens that she had projected from her gauntlet. 

“Are you okay?”

Lance looked over towards Keith, who stared at Shiro with a worried frown. On closer inspection, he could see that Shiro didn’t just look tired, he looked  _ pained _ for whatever reason.

“Nothing to worry about,” Shiro assured him, though that sounded fake even to Lance, who didn’t know Shiro on a personal level. Keith frowned at the man, and when he turned to look at the lions, turned his attention towards Lance, as if he had the answers for what to do. God, Lance couldn’t remember a time he saw Keith look like he was about to drop from exhaustion.

He was about to ask if Keith himself was okay (which Shiro should have done, honestly), but the sudden screech of metal on metal broke him out of his thoughts. He looked up and watched as the lions started to move. One by one they shifted closer to one another and settled down almost like they were real lions that came together for protection. A strange thrill shot through Lance as he watched that. 

His mind went back to the robeast, which was a weird combination of machine and beast, and apparently something else all together. His stomach twisted as he thought about the fact that the lions themselves were machines, but ones that had personalities, thoughts, and feelings. They were real creatures too.

“Voltron’s supposed to be the strongest weapon out there, right? What could be that bad that the lions were  _ scared _ of it?” He voiced out loud. It wasn’t exactly the question he truly wondered about, but he didn’t want to ask the question that was at the edge of his mind. He didn’t want to wonder about what Voltron was and how it worked. 

“I’m not sure,” Shiro admitted. “But whatever it was, the Galra are using it somehow. You both saw the damage it did out there, and I doubt that was the only one they have with them.” He turned to face them and grimaced. Keith stepped forward, but he quickly side-stepped him. “You both need to get some rest. I’m going to check out how things are on the bridge and catch up with Coran.” He swiftly left the room, as if to go before anyone could argue with him.

Lance turned his attention to Keith, who scowled at Shiro’s form as he retreated. He took a couple steps forward and stumbled slightly. 

“Woah!” Lance threw his arms out, hands hovered awkwardly in the air as he caught himself. “You good?”

“Long day,” Keith replied, and yeah, Lance got that. He felt that way too, but he didn’t stumble like that. “Could probably use some more water or something.”

“Come on,” Lance nodded towards the door. “Bet I can drink more water than you, and nap longer than you can.” What was he even  _ saying _ ? 

The smallest smile twitched on Keith’s features. He followed him to the door, but before they could leave, he looked back at the lions. The rest laid on the ground, but Black loomed over them all, tall and protective. 

Beside him, Keith actually shivered. He glanced at him only to see that he too was staring at Black and looked super uncomfortable. Though there was no movement of the head, or eyes, no flash of light to show that Black watched them, Lance still  _ knew _ that it was. It was a deep, heavy presence that made him want to hug himself.

Just what  _ was _ Voltron?

…

Something about the Balmera felt more lively than anything else now. It was hard to pick exactly what it was. Maybe it was the Balmerans on the surface, the lack of Galra (who took off when the robeast was sent down, which was suspicious now that Hunk thought about it), or the way the ground seemed to shimmer beneath his feet. The world wasn’t entirely fixed, that would take time and hard work, but it looked so much better already.

Hunk’s dark eyes turned to the crystal that towered high above him, and shuddered a bit at the sight of the still figure trapped inside. When they were in the lions, it was easy to forget just how big some of these things were, but here, outside, he realized that it could have easily consumed them all.

It was trapped though, because the Balmera came to their rescue.

An urge welled up within him, and Hunk couldn’t help but kneel down and pat the ground enthusiastically. “Who’s a good Balmera? You are! Who ate the big monster? You did! Yes, you did. Yes, you did!”

“The Balmera appreciates your compliments.”

He looked up, and a rush of embarrassment encompassed him as he met Shay’s gaze. She smiled at him genuinely, and he realized that she wasn’t teasing him at all. That was a nice change, since he was sure the others would ask him what the heck he was doing.

Hunk pushed himself up and grinned at her. He felt positively bubbly at the sight of her safe and sound. He’d been so worried, sure that he was the one that brought all of this onto her family. “You’re okay!”

“Thanks to you.”

He felt his cheeks warm as he shook his head. “Nah, that was all Allura.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Her yellow eyes turned up towards the sky. “I’ve never seen the sky before. It was light, and now it grows darker.”

Hunk hummed in agreement as he followed her gaze. He couldn’t imagine what it was like, not once seeing the stars in your lifetime. Though plagued with motion sickness, there was a reason he went to the Garrison. He could be an engineer anywhere, but a part of him was fascinated by the sky too, by what else could be beyond the stars. Shay never one got the chance to stare up at the sky and dream of better things to come before now.

He glanced at a tall crystal outcropping behind him, a different one from the monster one, and an idea hit him. “Hey, follow me.” He headed towards the crystal, Shay close behind him. 

It didn’t take long to figure out how to safely scale the crystal. It was almost like the Balmera purposely made it easy to climb them. Maybe it had. Who knew with giant, sentient creatures. Maybe they were all crazy.

Hunk sat down on the ledge and patted the ground beside him. Shay gingerly sat beside him, and looked around. “Why are we here?”

“Just watch.” He nodded towards the horizon where the sun slowly sank, casting vibrant yellows, oranges, and pinks across the surface of the Balmera.

“Oh.” Shay’s eyes were wide, her hands clasped in front of her. “It is beautiful!”

“It is, isn’t it?” Hunk had to agree with her. Only hours ago, the Balmera had been ready to shatter beneath their feet, and now it was alive again.

“It’s so warm and bright,” Shay continued. “Even as it gets darker. It’s wonderful! This world without Zarkon.” She paused and turned her attention back to him. “Thank you for honouring your vow to return.”

“I should be the one thanking you,” he said quickly with a shake of his head. Hunk stared down at his knees. “I was scared, you know? To be a Paladin and everything. I just wanted to go home. But you made me understand what’s most important. Like Allura said, Zarkon and the Galra Empire are destroying lives. I’m a part of a team that can change that. I don’t understand everything yet, but being here proved that.”

Shay ducked her head almost shyly as she fiddled with the hem of her worn shirt. She didn’t seem to know what to say, and instead looked back up. “What is this called?” She nodded towards the sky.

Hunk smiled. “A sunset. It might be the end of a day, but that’s okay. There will be a little bit of night for us all to rest, and then comes the best part. Then comes the dawn of a new day.” 

“A new day,” Shay repeated, as if testing the words on her lips. She beamed at him. “I like that.”

“I do too.” The two of them turned back to watch the sun set beneath the horizon.

It really was beautiful.

…

Pidge loved mysteries. Science could answer so many things, but it also left so many other questions open to exploration. Already they had seen things that defied science as they knew it on Earth, and she was beyond excited about it all. She wanted to explore everything the universe had to offer, and once she found Matt and her dad, she would show them everything too.

There simply wasn’t enough time in the day to do everything that she wanted to do. That led to Pidge labeling herself firmly as a night owl. It was true until the days they started to train together. Stupid training just had to ruin her perfectly chaotic schedule. Now it wasn’t even late and she was tired.

Sure, they spent most of the day in the midst of one fight after another, scaling, running, and so much more, but that didn’t mean she wanted to rest or anything. That creature alone was enough to make her mind run a kilometer a minute!

She was about ready to go to the room she commandeered recently as a lab of sorts when Coran found her. He eyed the wires that she had haphazardly tucked into her arms, and said, “Ah Number Five, just the Paladin I was looking for. I have a task I need your assistance for.”

Pidge groaned and dropped her stuff (Coran twitched a bit at that, like he wanted to clean it up then and there), so that she could follow him. At first, she was sure he was going to lead her to some nasty mess that needed to be cleaned, but instead, he led her to a more luxurious-looking part of the castle (which was a feat in and of itself in a  _ castle).  _

He rapped his knuckles against a door lightly and waited, then opened it when he received no answer. The room beyond the door was amazing with its massive bed, couch, desk, table, and so much more. It was really more a suite than just a room. 

Her amazement instantly vanished when she caught sight of Allura on the bed, the mice beside her head (well, three of them, Pidge wasn’t sure where the teal one was). 

“Is she okay?” Pidge asked as she took a few steps towards the sleeping princess. Despite the noise, she didn’t move an inch, and if it wasn’t for the rise and fall of her chest, she would have thought that Allura was dead.

“Exhausted, and her quintessence is quite low,” Coran admitted. “I was hoping that you’d help me change her. If it were an emergency, I would, but it is not, and I must respect that Allura’s a young woman who wouldn’t want her advisor changing her.”

Pidge blinked at the request, because for whatever reason, she didn’t expect it to be so simplistic. It kind of made sense though, she and Allura were the only girls on the ship. Well, that and the little pink mouse whose name Pidge could not remember for the life of her. 

It really wasn’t too much to ask, not after everything that Allura did for them that day. As she worked, it hit Pidge that Allura almost  _ died _ that day. They all had really, but she came the closest. Despite the fact that she didn’t know the Princess too well yet, Pidge found that she really didn’t like the idea of her dying. 

It wasn’t an easy task set before her. Despite how soft Allura looked, she was built from compact muscles and heavy. 

“Altean skin is really rough,” she noted. It felt like sandpaper against her hand, as weird as that was. It was just so fine that it wasn’t really noticeable at first glance. The mice nodded in agreement as they helped her as best they could.

“Ah yes,” Coran said from where he stood with his back towards them. “You humans do seem rather soft and fragile.” 

She was about to protest that, because in general, people were pretty hearty. A broken leg could be a death sentence in most species, but even without help, people could normally deal with it and heal fairly rapidly. But she supposed that he also had a point. They didn’t have skin like this. She wondered what kind of conditions on Altea led to an evolutionary advantage like that.

“Done, I think.” It looked like a straight-forward nightdress, unlike the skin-tight armour the Alteans perfected at some point (it really was impressive), so she was pretty sure she and the mice got it right. 

She felt a bit unsettled over the fact that Allura barely stirred while Pidge awkwardly man-handled her.

“Thank you, Number Five,” Coran said chipperly as he turned around. “As I said, It really isn’t appropriate for me to dress her at this age outside of an emergency. Not like when she was 50.”

Pidge stared at him, and decided then and there that she’d really like to get some sleep. Alteans were just a little too much sometimes. “Right. Is there anything else?”

He stared at her thoughtfully. “No, I don’t believe so. I sent Keith down to the infirmary to get some medicine for me, though he is taking quite a while, so if you see him, hurry him up for me, will you?”

She seriously wondered how Coran described what he wanted to Keith. Did he write down a label or just describe it? Because that would absolutely explain what took him so long. Instead of asking, Pidge decided to leave. She was suddenly very tired.

“Get some sleep, alright?” Coran said to her, and she nodded her head in response. Who was she to argue with the only adult around. 

Well, Shiro was an adult, but he was like…a mini adult. Twenty-five barely counted. Dear sweet Tesla, she was tired. Fine, biology won that round. She’d get some sleep.

Pidge bid Coran goodnight as she stumbled back through the door and headed towards the sleeping quarters. There were still so many questions ambling around in her head after the day they had, but she couldn’t focus on one of them. Matt would have scoffed at her and told her to take a nap and recharge. 

“So much to do, Matt,” she muttered under her breath as she rounded the corner, only to run into Keith. She stumbled back, but he managed to catch her. “Ow.”

“Sorry,” Keith muttered, his arms filled with different bottles of  _ stuff _ . The missing mouse sat on his shoulder, and that answered Pidge’s question of how he was supposed to find the right medicine. Apparently that plan was a failure. 

“Need any help?” she offered. 

“I’ve got it,” he assured her as he kept walking. Pidge watched him go for a moment before she shook her head and kept walking. Maybe she’d check out the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat first. 

It had been a really long day.

…

How Keith was supposed to understand the different labels on the bottles of Altean medicine without his helmet, he wasn’t sure. The mouse that was with him pointed at several things before he shrugged, because of course, why would the  _ mouse _ know the right thing?

He grumbled under his breath as he kicked at the door to Allura’s room, hands too full to knock. He was  _ tired _ and maybe a tad cranky. Shiro used to call this his ‘prickly cat’ stage of exhaustion.

Keith broke out of his musing as the door opened. Coran smiled at him as he entered and said, “Ah, I see there was a bit of trouble finding the right thing?”

“If it’s not here, I give up,” Keith said as he set them all down on the table. His gaze softened as he looked at Allura. “She alright?”

There was a warmth in Coran’s eyes as he said, “Yes, of course. Pidge was worried as well.” 

Keith didn’t quite get why he said that like it was a good thing, but hey, it was Coran. Who knew. Instead, he asked, “If she’s fine, why does she need this?”

“Oh, it will help regulate some things while she sleeps,” Coran explained. “That way she doesn’t get dehydrated.”

That made sense. Keith eyed her hand as the mouse ran from his arm onto hers, and could remember how rough her skin felt. Despite how human they looked, they really were different. That led him back to something else that he wondered since his incident with Lance in the tunnels.

“Alteans and humans are a lot alike, but there are some big differences.” He crossed his arms in front of him. “Balmerans can see in the dark, right? That’s why their eyes are like that. Galra eyes look the same, so can they see in the dark too? Can Alteans?”

“Hmm,” Coran hummed thoughtfully as he poured the correct amount of medicine he’d need (it was a lot). “Balmerans and Galra do have very similar eye structures. The population of Galra were split nearly half-and-half, some with pupils, some without. Daibazaal was tidally locked, so those with the solid eyes came from the dark half of the planet. They tended to have thick fur as well. Similar to Sendak. Those who lived on the sunny side usually had thick skin with no fur to protect them, and pupils. So some can see in the dark, some can’t. It just depends on their genetics. Even then, it’s hard to tell. Hybrids, for instance, usually take on the features from their non-Galra parent, but often have the Galra adaptations as well, including night vision without their eyes looking different. It’s fascinating.”

That was a lot of information to take in, and it made Keith’s stomach swoop uncomfortably. He really didn’t like where he thought this was going to go. “And Alteans?”

“We have many evolutionary adaptations, but not that,” Coran admitted. “From what I understand, Altean and human vision seems to be fairly similar. Humans might even have it a bit better. We definitely don’t have night vision.”

“Oh.” Keith felt like he was about to throw up at that. “That’s…cool. Need anything else?”

“You Paladins, always wanting to be helpful. No, run along.” Coran said with a wave of his hand.

Keith nodded and turned quickly. His hands shook as he walked, first towards the bedrooms, and then back in another direction. He really didn’t want to be alone right now.

…

Shiro’s arm shook as he pressed the Altean heating pads that Coran had given him earlier against it. It felt a little bit better, but the tremor just refused to go away. 

He felt bad for walking out on Keith and Lance earlier when it was obvious that both of the young men were rattled by what happened. Not to mention Keith was probably worried sick over him, but he needed to get away for a bit. To be alone.

Altean healing pods worked well on many different species, but that had more to do with quintessence than anything else apparently. They couldn’t heal things like diseases, and Altean medicine was a bit too iffy to bother trying for now.

That left Shiro with a dilemma. No medicine, and symptoms worse than before. Whatever the Galra did to make him bulk up, to make him live so long without medication, left him worse in the long run. Not that he was surprised. 

It was terrifying. Shiro accepted a long time ago that he had an expiration date, so to speak, that was much sooner than others. It was why he strived to do what he could while he could. That said, he could almost feel that date loom over him, closer and closer, and even if he could accept it, it still scared him. 

Not just for himself,but for everything he’d leave behind as well. For the universe and the rest of the Paladins. 

Shiro shook his head as he shifted the heating pad. He needed to clear his mind before he drove himself crazy with worry and plans. 

He felt something stir in the back of his mind, and started slightly when he realized that it was Black. He listened to his lion, and a small smile appeared on his face. Black wanted him to relax, to calm down. Of course Black knew what was wrong, Shiro couldn’t have hid it if he wanted to. The lion was surprisingly accepting of the situation, a pillar of stability for him when he needed to be that for everyone else.

“I have an idea,” he muttered to himself as he pushed himself up off of his bed. He felt Black’s curiosity, and smiled again. “You’ll see.” He stretched a bit and made his way out of the door. 

…

Coran was worried for the Paladins. They made themselves fairly scarce, even as the castle lifted off from the Balmera. He only knew where they were thanks to the monitors that kept track of where everyone went. 

He didn’t quite know what to make of the fact that all the Paladins were with their lions. Lance seemed to be cleaning the mud off of Blue’s nails, while Shiro sat atop Black’s head, perfectly still with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. The Altean couldn’t see the other three, but he was sure that they were okay. 

(Coran didn’t know it, but Hunk decided to replace some old gears within Yellow with new ones. Pidge worked with Green on new programs and coding, something that kept the lion calm. Keith was curled up in Red’s cockpit so they could comfort one another.) 

It was peculiar really. Coran couldn’t recall the past Paladins ever spending time with the lions in such a way. That brought him back to another thought that made him grimace.

That creature from earlier. He knew what it sounded like to him, something he never once laid his eyes on and never wanted to. There was no one that could confirm or deny his theory though. Well, no one he wanted to talk to. 

Despite this, he found himself outside of the AI chamber. He had so many questions, and he knew exactly where he had to go to get at least a few answers. His mind ran over everything that happened up until that point. The Arusians, the near death of an entire Balmera, what Allura managed to accomplish, and so much more.

Coran hid his grimace well as the projection of Alfor appeared before him. If he was honest, he hated this particular technology. It was almost cruel. Alfor was gone and he would never be back, and this was almost like a tease. 

“Something’s troubling you, old friend,” the AI noted.

“This past mission was quite difficult,” Coran acknowledged. “The universe is in bad shape, and the Balmera nearly died along with its people.” He was extremely proud of Allura for what she accomplished, he always knew that she was more powerful than anyone seemed to realize, than most other Alteans. The Balmerans were an important part of their own victory, but what Allura did could not be overlooked. 

He was so, so proud of her, but he was also terribly worried. There were many factors that led her to give the Balmera most of her quintessence to recover, and she would be fine, quintessence naturally replenished over time for the most part. It was just, he knew there was a large part of her that did it because she felt like she failed before. Like she failed Altea.

Except, she didn’t. 

His eyes turned to Alfor, thoughts of strange energy monsters out of his mind for the moment. “Could you have saved the Alteans?” 

The AI was silent for a moment before he answered, “Altea would have been destroyed, no matter the circumstances.”

Annoyance welled up within Coran. “That’s not what I asked.” 

“Part of our plan in the end was to use stealth to destroy Zarkon,” Alfor admitted in a matter-of-fact tone. “An evacuation would have tipped the Galra off.” He sighed, a response that was programmed into him since he didn’t need air or anything like that. “That was a mistake.” He didn’t let Coran get in another word though. “The castle’s systems say Allura’s quintessence is quite low. What has happened?”

Coran was silent for a moment. “She didn’t want another planet to die. So she healed an entire Balmera. With some help. It took a lot out of her.” 

The accusation was there, clear as day and undeniable. The AI ignored it. “My daughter is strong. She was the one who wanted to fight back. She was likely right.”

In retrospect, yes, Coran realized that she was right. That was partially why he let her go. He could still picture little, 50-year-old Allura swinging around someone’s bayard as she played paladin. She was always one to fight for others as it was, let alone with the self-imposed guilt and trauma of being one of the last Alteans left.

One of the last of a population that could have been saved.

“You let them die,” Coran noted. It wasn’t a question, but a statement. One that he’d keep to himself. Truths were one thing, but he didn’t want to permanently smear Allura’s vision of her father. It meant so much to her, and there was so little for them to hold onto those days. It was bad enough that he had to accept some very bitter truthes about someone whom he cared for deeply.  


Alfor regarded him carefully. “My AI does not know what happened after we finished the download before you went to sleep.” If a machine could hesitate, that was exactly what this one was doing now. “You must understand, it was not an easy decision. We did our best without knowledge at the time.”

Coran didn’t particularly care. He only wanted one thing confirmed at the moment, and it had nothing to do with strange monsters, even if it probably should have. That was what he should have been asking about, but this suddenly seemed much more important. Allura was so much more important. “You could have saved the Alteans, but you did not. You let them die,” he repeated his last statement firmly.

The fight seemed to drain out of the AI as he met Coran’s gaze. 

“I let them all die.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We made it! I won't lie to you all, this Balmera arch destroyed my soul to write out. I don't know why, it just did. As you can see, we're moving away from canon a little bit more and more. There will always be familiar pieces to it, but more and more changes will come as we go. One thing I have decided to do is put one completely original "episode" in every story I do, and that's coming up next! So the next chapter is nothing you've seen before! 
> 
> I recently watched the last couple episodes of S1, and it hit him just how much I loved these characters, and reminded me why I liked VLD so much in the first place. The end was bad, but there was so much potential in the beginning! Here's hoping it inspires me more, because I won't lie, I've been writing very very slowly. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone and you're lovely comments. It really does mean a lot since this project is very much a slow going marathon instead of a sprint. It can be a little daunting, but then I remember that there are people genuinely interested! I wish I could update more, but I'd rather keep it spaced out and consistent. It works out well for my beta reader too! 
> 
> All my socials:  
> [Tumblr](https://storiesbeyondthestars.tumblr.com/) |[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storiesbeyondthestars/) |[Stellar Sierras Instragram ](https://www.instagram.com/stellarsierras/) |[Twitter](https://twitter.com/storiesbeyond1)
> 
> Story betaed by: [Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon/pseuds/Silvamoon)


	12. To Search and Find

This creature, Pidge realized, was incredibly unsettling. It stood about her height on its hind legs, except its legs were long and spindly with weird joints. Honestly, it kind of reminded her of a spider, but with big, expressive eyes and hilariously massive ears. Still unsettling, but in kind of in a funny way. Not like some of the other things she’d seen already.

“What  _ is _ an Altean?” the creature asked, seemingly confused.

With Allura down for the count for now, and Coran doing both of their jobs on the ship, it was up to the Paladins to venture onto the planets they came across in order to form allies, find information, and so much more. For the most part, this meant that they came across many worlds that seemed to be barren of life as they could tell (Pidge always reminded herself that there could be many things out there that didn’t fall under humanity’s understanding of the universe). 

This was the first one that they came across with life. Shiro was a godsend, able to corral them and make sure their mission ran smoothly. It wasn’t a super advanced planet, and there was no Galra activity, but it was always good to meet the locals, no matter how freaky they were to look at.

The only problem was that after everything settled down, Shiro vanished back to the castle, leaving the four of them alone with these strange aliens. Though technically  _ they _ were the aliens to these guys, weren’t they?

They started with a general spiel earlier, that they were there as the Paladins of Voltron, and representatives of Princess Allura of Altea. That seemed to lead to more confusion than anything else.

“You know,” Pidge answered with a motion of her hands, “aliens that look like us, but they have pointy ears.” She brought her hands up by her ears. “Face markings, and rough skin like a shark!” She wasn’t a poet or anything, but she thought it was a pretty good description.

The creature tilted its head, and it might have been cute if it didn’t tilt  _ so _ much. It made Pidge internally cringe. Necks shouldn’t do that. Well, owls and other creatures did, but they were weird too.

“What is a shark?” the local asked.

Lance, being Lance, immediately pulled his phone out of his pocket, and of course he had a picture of a great white shark saved on there. “This.”

A few of the other creatures gathered around to listen to them and leaned in close to look at Lance’s phone. At the sight of the shark (mouth open, of course), they all screamed and backed away.

“Lance!” Hunk groaned loudly, his large hands covering his face.

“They don’t look like that,” Keith said to the locals, holding his hands up as if to pacify them somehow. “They almost look like us.”

“Do they turn into the beast?” the main one that they were talking to asked suspiciously. Its eyes darted left to right, as if a shark would lunge out of the trees to eat them. The thought amused Pidge a lot, even if there were probably planets out there with land sharks or something similar. 

“No, no, Alteans don’t shapeshift,” Hunk said quickly. “They’re just like—wait—are Alteans mammals?” He looked perplexed by the question. “I mean, you’d think they would be ‘cause they’re just like us and we can eat similar things. And we need similar temperatures and all to live, and oxygen and water and—”

“They’re mammals like us, Hunk,” Keith cut in dryly. Whether he knew that for sure, or if he just wanted to stop Hunk from rambling on, Pidge didn’t know. She appreciated it though, because she didn’t want to go down that route just yet.

Instead, she chose to focus on the locals. “So, you guys said something about some fruits earlier?” At least they knew these weird things were vegetarian and not about to eat them.

The aliens lit up at the mention of the food, and motioned for the Paladins to follow them. Pidge watched with curious interest as both Hunk and Lance looked towards Keith, as if waiting for him to decide. Now that Pidge thought about it, when Shiro wasn’t around, Keith did seem to be the one to take charge. She was surprised that Lance hadn’t ranted about that yet, but reasoned that he probably didn’t notice.

Actually, none of them probably realized they were doing it. She wasn’t going to point it out because she didn’t want to deal with Lance complaining over the entire thing.

Keith didn’t even realize that they were looking at him. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the aliens in front of them, as if searching them for any tell-tale signs of deception. Apparently, he didn’t find any, because he started after them.

The rest eagerly followed him. If they could find some actual food that wasn’t food goo, they were absolutely going to take the locals up on it.

…

Altea once had allies all across the universe. They had connections to highly advanced civilizations, and ones that were a bit more on the primitive side (comparatively). The war that broke out between Daibazaal and Altea 5,000 years ago spanned galaxies due to the complex web of allies they both had. When their alliance fractured, everyone else was forced to take a side.

Allura would have loved to say that everyone sided with Altea, like she thought they should have, but many did not. It was war, plain and simple.

Her bright eyes looked up at the glowing map around her. Though she used the term ‘war’, Allura knew that it couldn’t really be called that anymore. The war was won long ago. They were the rebels that technically started a war with Zarkon again. Sometimes freedom required fighting first, but she didn’t have to like it.

There was no war yet. They needed more allies again, because it had been 5,000 years since Altea was destroyed, and Zarkon apparently did his best to eliminate the knowledge of her people as well. The introduction of ‘Princess Allura, daughter of Alfor, King of Altea’ meant nothing to most, and it was heartbreaking.

Not that Allura could do much. They landed on a few planets after the Balmera, but things went fairly straight-forward with those. They’d yet to run into a situation even close to the condition on the Balmera. Which was probably best. She didn’t want to admit it, but Allura knew she pushed herself a little too hard. 

Alteans didn’t sleep as long as other species, but she was constantly exhausted. It was very likely that she’d been close to offering more quintessence than she actually could. It wasn’t something that they talked about, but everyone in the castle seemed aware of it. 

Of course, it would have been hard to be oblivious, what with how overprotective Coran was. Allura did appreciate the sentiment, but she was terribly annoyed as well. It got to the point where she got the mice to distract him just so she could slip out of her room and do  _ something _ . She found a place to sit and work, because she wasn’t completely stupid. She couldn’t be up and about like she wanted.

She eyed the projection of the planet that they slowly approached (they were at their lost stop before then), and focused on that instead of her personal musing. The Galra didn’t seem to have that much of an active force in this specific part of the Galaxy, which made sense. Space was massive, and even if they were in Galra territory, there had to be spots that weren’t really monitored closely. 

This planet, Bataria, was once a powerful ally for the Alteans, and she  _ insisted _ that they had to try to get in contact with the people there. They might not remember them, but if there was a shred of the society from 5,000 years ago left, and they were willing to ally with them, it would be worth it. Every little bit counted.

“Are you supposed to be working?”

Allura squeaked in surprise and her fist flew towards the source of the noise, only to be met with a pale palm. Shiro stared at her with wide, almost amused eyes, and she instantly flushed. She dropped her hand and fiddled with the edge of her robe. “Are you supposed to be sneaking up on people like that?”

Shiro chuckled as he moved closer to the projection. For once he wasn’t donned in his armour. Allura realized with a start that she saw him in that more often than anything else, while the others only wore theirs when they had to. “That would have been a nasty punch.” 

Her cheeks flushed magenta at his amused words. “I…sorry.” What could she say to that? Instead, she looked around and realized just how odd that he was there alone. “Where are the Paladins?”

“I left them on the planet,” he answered with a motion towards the castle wall.

Her heart stopped for a moment. “Shiro!” Though quite effective as a team, the four younger paladins tended to be a bit…chaotic when left alone without her, Shiro, or Coran around. 

“It’s fine, the locals love them,” he assured her as he reached for one of the tablets that was there. As soon as his fingers curled around it, his entire arm seized and the tablet clattered to the ground. 

“Are you okay?” she asked, instantly concerned.

“It’s okay. Part of the reason I had to get away for a bit,” Shiro admitted as he flexed his fingers slightly, though they twitched a bit.

Allura bit her lip as she tilted her head slightly. She knew she shouldn’t ask, but she had to. “What is that exactly?” Panic hit her hard, because she really shouldn’t have asked. “I apologize. You don’t have to answer that. I’ve been trying to be a bit…less invasive.”

Shiro shook his head, a soft smile appearing on his face. “It’s alright. I suppose you should know anyway.” He met her gaze. “I have an illness that deteriorates my muscles. Coran was able to find something that helps with the pain and calm my spasms, but it still hits me sometimes.”

Her eyes went wide. “Oh! Is there anything I can do to help you get better?” Surely there was a way they could calibrate the healing pods to help with that. Except, illnesses weren’t the same as wounds or injuries. The pods could replace blood that was lost by sampling and synthesizing blood with the fluids and quintessence that ran through them. They could mend bones, fuse muscle, and seal wounds together (though that still left scars, something that a few tried to improve before the war, but no one really had time to focus on such a thing since Alteans could hide scars anyway). If it was in his muscles though, maybe they could help. 

He chuckled. “This isn’t something that goes away. It’s okay though. I’ve never liked to dwell on what’s coming, because then you miss where you are right now. We just need to keep working hard to leave the universe in a better place than how we found it.”

Alarm bells went off in Allura’s brain. A faint memory pushed forward in her mind of a woman with dark pink eyes and pure white hair in a bed, frail and tired as her life left her despite what anyone tried to do. Her throat squeezed as she said, “You make it sound as if you’re dying.” He smiled at her sadly, and she had to blink her eyes rapidly. “No! I—no! The pods…” They could help him. Surely they could help him. 

“The pods are amazing, but they don’t fix things like this,” Shiro said, his voice calm and soft. “Coran and I looked into it already.” 

Anger flared up within Allura at how calm he was. This wasn’t fair. Shiro was just so  _ good _ . Humans already had a startlingly short lifespan, but he was barely even the age of an Altean toddler. And he seemed fine with that. 

Her hand shook as she snapped. “Maybe they can! I’ll look into it myself and see if I can. The Balmera was on the brink of death and I saved it. There must be some type of magic I can find! Or—or—” Her eyes blurred with tears that she tried to hide. 

“Hey, it’s okay.” Shiro grabbed her hands gently with both of his, warm flesh and cold steel contrasting sharply. “It’s okay, Allura. I’ve known this was coming for a long, long time. I saw my father go through it too, though mine is accelerating more than his. I know what to expect, and everything will be fine.  _ Voltron _ will be fine. I know it.”

“It will, because I’ll find a way to save you,” Allura snapped viciously. These Paladins drove her nuts sometimes, but they were all she had, and if she could do something to help one of them, she would. She wasn’t going to let death take anyone else from her. “I’ll find a way.” 

Shiro opened his mouth, possibly to argue, when they heard Coran’s voice from the hallway. Allura sat up straight, her eyes widening. “Oh no.” If he caught her here, he’d probably follow her around like a mother hokradan. It wasn’t like she could run away at the moment though. She was too weak for that still.

“I thought you were okay to work.” She looked at Shiro and scowled. He smirked in response and glanced at the door briefly. Shiro pivoted on the spot and said, “Climb on my back.”

“What?”

“Do you want to get caught?”

Allura very quickly made a decision. She practically threw herself at Shiro to climb up onto his back. He hiked her up a bit higher, hands grabbing the back of her legs to steady her as she held onto him tightly.

“Hold on,” Shiro said with a laugh and took off running. Allura couldn’t help but laugh along with him too as he quickly darted down the halls towards her sleeping quarters.

She held onto him tightly so that she wouldn’t fall, and made a silent vow to herself. Allura swore that she’d find a way to help this man who was so vibrant and should have had his entire life ahead of him. 

Not even death itself would stop her.

…

The Castle of Lions was made with many different types of creatures in mind. From the individual showers in the rooms, to the customizable options in the healing pods, and so much more. They were prepared to deal with a multitude of species. This included communicating with them. The castle scanned new species when they entered, and worked to create proper translations. As long as people were in the castle, they could understand one another. 

The same thing went for the paladins’ helmets. They could understand nearly any species, and in turn, could be understood. However, they wouldn’t always have their helmets on and be in range of the castle and the lions. 

Coran knew this was going to be an issue at some point, so he gathered them all up into the infirmary that was attached to the healing pod room and sat them down on the beds there.

“That’s so cool,” Pidge said in awe as she carefully analyzed the incredibly tiny device in her hand. 

Hunk leaned over her shoulder to look at it. “Wow. The construction of things so small is really cool, you know?” 

She nodded her head eagerly. “Yeah, and if it can translate everything both ways – we hear what other aliens are saying in English, and they hear what we say in their language – so it has to have amazing programming.” 

Coran chuckled at her starry-eyed expression. Humans were a rather simplistic species, he’d come to find, but Pidge seemed beyond many in her thought processes. It was nice to see. 

“So you’re going to insert these into our heads?” Keith asked, his arms crossed in front of him. He eyed Pidge’s hand like the small device was going to leap at him and attack. 

“It’ll be alright,” Shiro assured Keith. He placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “It’s just so we can understand everyone.”

“Unless all the Altean technology turns on us and they take over our brains,” Lance added. His lips curled up into a smirk as he saw Keith’s alarmed expression. Shiro lightly whapped him on the back of the head with his hand.

“Don’t worry about it, Number Four,” Coran assured Keith. “These are perfectly safe. It’s just a small pinch behind your ear, and then we’re done.”

“Like getting your ears pierced,” Allura spoke up, the mice pointing at her ears as if that proved her point. She insisted on being part of this event, despite Coran urging that she rest. If there was anywhere that Allura was safe when she wasn’t feeling well, it was the med bay.

“Your earrings float,” Pidge pointed out, brow furrowing.

Allura laughed and pointed at her ear. “There’s an attachment pierced through my ear. They just don’t hover on their own. It’s how they act as communicators too. Who says that fashion can’t be functional?”

“I suddenly have the intense urge to talk about Altean jewellery,” Pidge admitted, her eyes wide. Allura perked up a bit at that, and actually looked excited about the prospect. 

“It can’t be any worse than that eyebrow piercing you got,” Shiro said with a nod towards Keith. His eyes were narrowed and full of judgement.

Lance’s head instantly shot around to him. “You had your eyebrow pierced?” He studied Keith closely, as if said piercing would magically appear again.

“The summer when I was 15,” Keith admitted with an unrepentant shrug. “Shiro said no when I asked, so I got this dude I know to do it anyway. Went against the Garrison dress code though, so it healed over.”

“Uh…yeah…” Lance blinked at Keith, completely distracted for some reason. 

Coran’s eyes scanned the Paladins. Hunk was studying the tiny translator. Pidge was now beside Allura, staring at her ears with interest. Lance and Shiro were both staring at Keith, who seemed confused by the attention.

He targeted Hunk first. Out of the group, he figured that he’d be the most reluctant. He took the rather frightening-looking device that would normally send people running. Luckily for him, Hunk didn’t look in his direction. He moved swiftly and pressed what could only be described as an injection gun behind his right ear. He squeezed the trigger and Hunk yelped and jumped. 

Coran moved away as he clapped his hand over the injection sight. “It burns! Oh ow it burns! Why didn’t you warn me?”

“Would you have let me do it if I did?” Coran asked before he turned his gaze to the other Paladins. Lance, Pidge, and Keith all looked highly alarmed. Pidge cowered a bit behind Allura, while Lance leaned closer to Keith as if he’d hide him, and Keith eyed the object in Coran’s hand as if it was an actual weapon. 

“Guess I’m up next,” Shiro spoke up as Hunk rubbed his ear. He came over without any hesitation, and Coran realized that he was probably used to all kinds of medical procedures. 

That said, Shiro also winced as the microbot was injected into him. “Son of a bitch!”

Hunk gaped at him, Lance pointed and seemed to be silently screaming, and Pidge yelled out, “Shiro swore!” 

“Oh, so when I do it, it’s all ‘Keith stop swearing around children’, but when  _ you _ do it—” Shiro shoved Keith towards Coran, who was quick to grab him and give him the injection. If Coran was honest, he was most nervous about putting the microbot into Keith, because out of everyone, he was the one most likely to retaliate with a sharp object. Coran learned the hard way that he slept with a knife under his pillow and woke up swinging when startled.

Lance eyed Coran’s injection gun warily as the Altean turned to him. He got the distinct impression that Pidge would be the hardest to grab. Beside Coran, Keith stopped rubbing the tender spot behind his ear and smirked at the Blue Paladin. “Scared?” 

“I— _ scared _ ? Excuse me? Did you just say—I’m not scared of anything! If you can do it so can I!” Lance stormed over to Coran and turned around. “Shoot me up!”

Coran cast a glance at Keith, who smirked at him before he shifted over to Shiro’s side. The Altean chuckled, because that was clever. They had things to do and they couldn’t stand here all day and wait for everyone to get comfortable for a tiny little pinprick. Humans sure were sensitive creatures, weren’t they?

Like Hunk, Lance yelped at the injection and then sulked over to his friend, who muttered something quietly. They both then turned their attention towards Pidge.

The youngest Paladin eyed Coran warily, her small body tensing as she did. Her leg twitched, and there was no doubt she was about to make a run for it, when Allura suddenly grabbed a hold of her. Pidge yelped with betrayed alarm and Coran moved quickly, brushing her hair out of the way to deliver the injection. “There. All done. That wasn’t so bad!”

“I can’t believe this,” Pidge groaned. She rolled onto the ground when Allura let her go. She twisted around so that she was in the perfect position to give both Alteans the stink eye. 

“At least you can test first-hand how the translator works,” Hunk pointed out. Pidge perked up at this a bit.

“That’s true! Shoot, we should have done a few scans before we were injected so that we had something to compare it to.” 

“Shiro and Lance were in the healing pods, Coran said those keep records.”

She eyed the two Paladins in question, but before she could insist on making them her lab rats, Allura cleared her throat. 

Though the Princess was clearly still very tired, she sat tall and proud. “We had to install the translators as a safety precaution if you’re ever without your helmets and away from the lions and castle. I can’t predict a specific mission this might happen on, but it’s better to be prepared.” She picked up the tablet Coran brought for her earlier, pressed a couple buttons, and a star map appeared around them. Normally, they would do this kind of debriefing on the command deck, but it was better if Allura just went back to bed after all this.

“Bataria was a strong ally to Atlea in the past,” she explained, and the map zoomed onto a planet. “It was fairly technologically advanced at the time, yet our sensors detect no Galra movements in the area. It’s quite suspicious, and we need to know why. They were our ally once, and they can become so again.”

Coran nodded his head in agreement. “Princess Allura must stay here and get some rest, so I will be going with you to act as an intermediary when we get there. We once had a very deep respect for one another, so I hope to discover that some aspects of that have remained the same over the years.” 

He really hoped that this went well.

…

“…And listen, I’m no architect but look at the buildings down there! The engineering that had to go into that is amazing! Then again humans were able to do pretty advanced things even with rudimentary machines to help them. I bet a place like this is just brimming with culture and history!”

Shiro chuckled at Hunk’s enthusiasm, but he had to admit, he was impressed too. There was something very Earth-like about it, and their lions were reading similar atmospheric conditions to that of their world. The vegetation was a dark green that seemed to cover most of it, with wide rivers circumventing it. There were no big oceans, but maps showed that on the opposite side of their planet, there was a decently sized sea. It was still quite similar. 

Well, if Earth had trees twice as big as the largest ones documented. Shiro was also pretty sure that the average leaf size was about the same size as Pidge was. 

The vegetation wasn’t even the most amazing part. No, that would be the massive structures that rose up from the grounds. Much of it was a metal that gleamed similar to gold, albeit with a more orange tinge to it. Also the silvery accents really seemed to be a little more blue than anything else. 

“They look like Mayan structures,” Hunk spoke up again. “Like, a lot of the architecture is similar!”

“This is definitely a technologically advanced society,” Pidge added. “I’m getting all kinds of data readings.” She paused for a moment. “And it looks like someone is hailing us.”

“Send me over the frequency,” Shiro requested. It pinged up in front of him, and he was quick to open it, “Bataria, this is Shiro, Pilot of the Black Lion and Head of Voltron. We come in peace and wish to talk to your representatives.”

There was a long pause, and Shiro brought the formation to a stop, letting the lions hover in the air. Now they had to wait for a bit. 

“We could contact them again,” Coran said from where he stood behind his chair. 

“They’ll get back to us,” Shiro assured him. “I—”

“Voltron?” A strange voice said, rolling the R sound as they spoke. “Such a thing was a myth or nightmare in the past.”

“I can assure you, Voltron is very real,” the Black Paladin replied, keeping his voice calm. Zarkon made sure that many people thought Voltron was a bad thing so that if he got his hands on it, the worlds would instantly fear him. They weren’t going to let that happen.

“You may land in the area indicated,” the voice said again, and a circular building lit up. “Do you see?”

“Yes, thank you. Let’s go team.” They soared carefully towards the illuminated landing area, and Shiro was quick to turn on their private channel. “Be on the lookout. This could be a trap.”

“I don’t think—” Coran started, but Shiro was quick to cut him off. He understood that the Altean man wanted to be optimistic, but he was not about to risk the lives of the Paladins by allowing them to think that they were instantly safe. 5,000 years was a very long time. Multiple societies rose and fell and disappeared within that amount of time on Earth. 

“The Galra didn’t take over this planet for a reason,” Keith spoke up across the comms. “We should stay on guard, just in case.”

Warmth rushed through Shiro, because he knew that his younger brother would always have his back. Keith took to this whole Paladin thing with a fierce seriousness that he didn’t entirely see in the other three just yet. On one hand, this was a relief because he knew he could rely on Keith. He  _ knew _ that Keith would step up for what he was going to have to ask him to do in the future, even if he also knew that his brother would hate it. On the other hand, it made him sad because he knew  _ why _ Keith took things so seriously, why he skipped over the fun of being a teenager. 

Shiro saw the longing in his brother’s eyes when Pidge, Lance, and Hunk would hang out together and goof off. The longing to be able to hang out with them and have fun, to be a part of the group outside of missions. 

Though he had to worry that Keith might take his side a little too much. The one thing the others had yet to figure out, but they would, was that their Red Paladin was fiercely loyal, almost to a fault. They’d figure it out eventually. 

He broke out of his musing as the lions set on the ground. There was already a small congregation of locals waiting for them, and the first thing that Shiro realized was that while they were a tad strange to look at, they were actually quite beautiful.

These creatures were bipedal and humanoid in a sense that they stood upright with four appendages. They were incredibly slender and tall with pure white skin that glittered in the sunlight, and iridescent feathers on the top of their heads, trailing down their backs and shoulders, and down their arms. They didn’t have wings, but they did have large bat-like ears and wide, almost innocent looking eyes.

As they exited the lions and approached the aliens, Coran muttered something under his breath before saying, “Those aren’t the Batarians.” 

The middle one with golden feathers looked towards Coran, their ears twitching slightly. Their large, green eyes narrowed at Coran, and a hiss made all the Paladins instantly freeze. “Who are you?”

“My name is Coran,” the Altean said as he moved towards them. “I am the royal advisor to Princess Allura of Altea, leader of the Voltron Alliance. We respectfully request an audience with the leader of the Batarian people to reform an ancient alliance with the goal to end the tyranny of the Galra Empire.”

Shiro could  _ instantly _ tell that Coran said something wrong. The creatures bristled, their feathers puffing up slightly. Keith tensed next to him, but wisely didn’t summon his bayard yet.

“I am the leader of the Batarian people, but not of the ones  _ you _ know.” The alien’s eyes narrowed. “I have heard of Alteans. We treasure our history and document it carefully and truthfully. The losses and the victories. So your people and all the horrors that you aided against ours is well documented.” 

“Horrors?” Coran bristled. “I will have you know that it is not the Altean way to harm other cultures. I don’t know what you have written down, but it must be wrong. Alteans are a people of peaceful explorers! You must have us confused with the Galra.”

“Not all horrors are pure destruction and death like the Galra bring.” The creature looked towards the Paladins, glare turning into curiosity. “You are not Altean. Similar at first glance, but not.”

“No, we’re from a different planet,” Shiro answered for them all. “Our goal is to bring Zarkons reign to an end, to set free all the people that he enslaved, and save the worlds that he’s in the process of destroying. We can’t do that alone though. We need help. We know that Zarkon has been telling others that Voltron is a bad thing so he can have others fear it, but we are not Zarkon. We’re going to use the strength of Voltron to save the universe.”

“I kind of want to clap for that speech,” Pidge muttered from somewhere behind Shiro. Lance and Hunk both snickered at her.

The Batarian regarded them all curiously before nodding their head. “Our ancestors were the slaves of those the Alteans befriended. It is known that they watched the horrors performed against us. That they tried to change the traditions we had left to something more in light of what they believed. They are documented to be a very arrogant and judgemental species. Subtle conquerors who would go to planets claiming good intentions and slowly alter cultures to fit their own picture of a perfect world. We will not allow for that.”

Coran spluttered, and Shiro quickly held up his hand. “If that’s what you want, we will get back in our lions and leave. If you need help against the Galra in the future, we will come to aid you, either you’re a part of our alliance or not.”

“I am curious how the Alteans are still alive,” another one of the Batarians finally spoke up. “The last documented were those that fled after the destruction of Altea and sought shelter with the Slavers.” The creature ruffed its feathers slightly. “The Slavers gave them to the Galra in return for sanctuary. This was before our people rose up and freed ourselves.”

Horror rushed through Shiro as he realized what that meant. There were Alteans here after the fall of Altea, but they were betrayed and killed. It was a significant enough event that these people, 5,000 years later, still knew of it. 

“You are neither Galra, Altean, nor Slaver,” the golden Batarian noted. “So we will determine if you are worthy. We have allies on many other planets as well, and hold no love for Galra.” Sharp eyes flickered to Coran. “The Altean must leave though. We will not become slaves ever again.”

“What?” Pidge snapped. “You can’t ask that of us! Coran’s a part of our team!”

“Yeah, just because  _ some _ crappy Alteans were here before doesn’t mean  _ he’s _ bad,” Hunk agreed.

“We wish no ill will on the Atlean,” the leader clarified. “We will not speak in his presence though.”

“It’s quite alright,” Coran assured them, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder when it looked like the other boy was about to argue. “I will use the emergency pod in the Black Lion to return to the castle and monitor things from there.” He then faced the Batarians with a stern expression, like he wanted to say something of them, but thought better of it. 

They watched Coran leave, and as soon as they saw the pod leave Black, the Batarians instantly relaxed. Their feathers smoothed, and eyes seemed to brighten with interest.

“Come,” the leader said, turning to lead the way.

“Be careful,” Shiro warned the others lightly. He had absolutely no idea what they were getting into, but they needed to be ready for pretty much anything at this point.

…

Allura was incredibly confused by Coran’s return, even more so by the story that he told her. He was honest with his words, not bothering to hide anything about the confrontation with these new Batarians. 

It left her both absolutely baffled and incredibly confused about how someone could think such a thing of Alteans. They were not the enemy! Alteans were a proud, peaceful people. In fact, Allura’s father had been Bataria in the past. It just didn’t make sense. 

A part of her wanted to storm down to the AI chamber and speak to her father. The AI would have the memories from that period in his life, perhaps even be able to recall it easier than Alfor himself could have. 

She was far too exhausted to actually go down there though. She’d heard of this before, where someone’s quintessence could get completely out of control, and depending on how powerful it was, it could send them through waves of high energy to sheer exhaustion without any warning. She was lucky that she was stabilizing so quickly that it didn’t make her pass out anymore.

“Oh!” Allura sat up a little straighter. She was too tired to go and see her father, but she could get access to his journals and logs. All she needed was a tablet. She reached out to the mice mentally, asking them for their help in retrieving what she needed. They squeaked in agreement. 

She was going to get to the bottom of this. So few people remembered Alteans now, and she didn’t want those who did to be blinded by misconceptions.

…

“The fang of a beast,” Keith muttered as he maneuvered Red carefully through the sky. Though they could move quickly enough to get through a solar system in seconds, it wasn’t smart to fly like that on a planet. They’d probably end up killing something or themselves. Still, they flew faster than any other vehicle they came across so far, which was part of the reason that the Batarian people allowed them to use the lions for transport. They were apparently not allowed to help in whatever challenge rested before them though.

Honestly, Keith thought this entire thing was stupid. Yes, he knew that sometimes you needed to earn respect, but he didn’t see how a bunch of strange ingredients would help. He didn’t even know what the others were doing.

“You shall face the beasts to the east and take the fang from one of their mouths,” an orange Batarian told him. “They are monsters and a bane to our existence, so they must be stopped.” They told Keith to go to the east until the land met the sea, which wasn’t hard, there was only one sea on the entire planet. “You will know them when you see them.”

Blue was the lion associated with water, so it probably would have been smarter to send her and Lance, but whatever. Apparently the Batarians knew best.

“This whole thing is an awful idea,” Keith said out loud. 

_ “You will be safe, Cub Paladin,”  _ Red assured him. He took comfort in that, because he knew for a fact that if he was in danger, Red would come for him. 

Despite being smaller than an ocean, the sea was still huge. It was always strange just how big things were in life. Pictures didn’t really describe it. Of course, Keith never actually saw any of Earth’s oceans or seas before they launched themselves out of the stratosphere with Blue (and even then it was just a small glimpse while they were flipping end over end), so he had nothing to compare this sea to from home. Only what he saw on Arus, and pictures, of course.

He set down gently at the coordinates provided, and Red lowered her head to let him walk out. The first thing Keith did was get his bearings and take in everything he could about his environment. There wasn’t any kind of beach where he was. The land, made of a dense rock likely smoothed from erosion, simply came to a stop where the sea began, and if the colour said anything about it, it was lightly a steep, straight shot to the sea floor. 

The sky was cloudless, and the monitors in his suit told Keith that the weather was warm, and the atmosphere was safe. Maybe it was a bit stupid, but he opened up his helmet so that the bottom part vanished, letting him breathe the fresh air. 

A shiver went up his spine. It didn’t smell salty or anything like that, but it was still  _ nice _ . He allowed himself a brief moment to close his eyes and just breathe. Lance would probably love this place. It was so peaceful and calming here that it was easy to forget that things were so wrong in the universe. 

Well, there were probably threats even bigger than the Galra out there somewhere. There were probably groups of people more twisted and brutal doing awful things on individual worlds. It was a sobering thought, but one he knew was true. He also knew, logically, that there would be no way to help them all. Keith wished with all his heart that he could, but he knew it was impossible. All they could do was focus on the here and now. How the future panned out, well, they’d see.

He opened his eyes again and looked around the water in front of him. He wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for. A beast of some sort that he had to defeat in order to take their fang. The area around him actually was fairly barren, so he wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Either something that could burrow through the hard rock, or…

Keith turned his eyes to the sea. Or he was looking for something within the water itself. He wasn’t sure what that could be. A shark? A whale? No, that didn’t make much sense. The way the Batarians spoke of these things, it sounded like they were a huge inconvenience and hated them. Then again, if this was the only sea, perhaps the Batarians were the ones encroaching on the territory of a creature that should be left alone. 

When he was younger, along with stories about the stars, his father loved to regale him with myths, fables, fairy tales, and all kinds of things like that. It was partially why he was so interested in cryptids. He thought about all the ones on Earth, and how there was definitely a very real basis for some of them. Some sightings might even be aliens, now that he knew that there was definitely a large variety of life out there. Hell, he knew for a fact that he wasn’t entirely human, though he wasn’t quite sure if Allura was right and he had some Altean blood, or if his fears about his knife and the very Galra-like symbol on it was right. 

Keith fought down the anxiety that rose at the thought, and chose to focus on the here and now. Here was tangible and something that he could work with. Here, he needed to find some monster to fight.

He carefully walked to the edge where the land abruptly ended and the sea began. He always liked swimming when it was available to him. He did a lot of activities at a young age, including fencing, ballet, and swimming. He probably would have been a regular jock if his father had lived. Keith tended to get a little too pent up if he couldn’t expend his energy in some home or another, hence why his father got him to do so many different things.

Despite the fact that he didn’t mind swimming, he wasn’t about to just jump in the water. Though his armour would protect him from the cold and pressure, and he wouldn’t run out of oxygen either since the suit recycled his own carbon dioxide somehow (he wasn’t entirely sure how, and didn’t bother asking). Maybe he could jump into the water then and see what would happen.

Red grumbled a warning, and Keith saw it a second later. A massive, dark shadow moved in the water, heading towards the shore at an alarming pace, a wake appearing as it grew closer to the surface. Keith summoned his rapier and tensed his thighs, ready to spring out of the way at a moment’s notice. 

The massive figure leapt out of the water, and soared over Keith’s head. He felt like time slowed as he took in exactly what the creature was. Brilliant blue and white scales glittered with the sunlight and drops of water that rained down onto Keith. It was long and almost serpentine, with a large head. Despite its lack of wings, it seemed to twist through the air with ease before landing on the ground.

Everything went still for a moment as Keith looked at the long, winding creature, his heart racing as it slowly turned to face him. The creature’s mouth was open as it panted, lined with long, white teeth that seemed as sharp as any sword. Its eyes focused on him, iridescent pupils narrowing into cat-eye slits. 

He was staring at a  _ dragon _ . An actual dragon! It looked more like one from Chinese lore rather than European, but it was still amazing. 

See, the thing was, out of all mythological animals, dragons were Keith’s favourite. He wasn’t sure how or when that manifested, since he couldn’t stand to be near fire for too long, but he always loved them. Now there was one right in front of him, staring at him.

“Holy shit!” he blurted out, unable to help himself. That’s when Keith remembered that he was in front of a dragon, and he had to  _ fight _ it. He had to  _ kill _ it. 

Another thing occurred to him. He was standing there, gaping at a dragon like a complete and utter idiot. A dragon that was apparently supposed to be this dangerous beast. A dragon that was just sitting there, staring back at him and panting. It should have fried him already. Or maybe it didn’t use fire, but he was sure that it could have ended him by now. Except, it didn’t. Not only that, but Red, while a tad wary, didn’t sense any immediate danger.

It looked down at his sword and growled, cringing away from him and bringing one hand—paw—whatever—back to protect it. That was when Keith saw something sticking inside of the skin. It was hurt. It was hurt, and it was  _ scared _ of him, even if it could have just sat on Keith and ended him.

His sword vanished, and Keith very slowly edged forward. “Hey there buddy. I’m not going to hurt you.” He didn’t want to have to fight this creature that could clearly overpower him, but yet seemed so scared. If it was some wild beast that came charging at him, that’d be one thing. This creature was quivering, either from fear or pain, he wasn’t sure which.

The dragon blinked at him, and regarded his stretched out palms oddly. There was an intelligence behind its eyes, and it probably knew that Keith wasn’t from this planet from looks alone. 

As he inched closer, Keith realized that there was the end of some kind of weapon jammed in perfectly where the dragon would likely have to struggle to get it out, or maybe it just couldn’t do it on its own, like when someone needed another person to take a splinter out when they couldn’t.

Back in the city, one of the things he took notice of was the weapons that the Batarians had, and this thing in its foot matched their spear-gun things that he admired. Shoot and stab things at the same time? Rad. Now he kind of hated it on principle.

Keith hesitated, because he knew he was approaching an injured, highly dangerous creature. He wanted to help it though. 

“I won’t hurt you,” Keith spoke clearly and hoped that the translator was working. The Batarians understood him, maybe these guys caught onto that? He was pretty sure it was intelligent. “I just want to help. I’ll take it out.” He pointed at the weapon. 

It stopped moving and eyed him as he approached, but did nothing to stop him. In fact, Keith got the feeling that it was almost  _ judging _ him as it practically held out its paw.

Keith very gently wrapped his hands around the weapon and readied himself to move. He yanked it hard and immediately jumped to the side and out of the way. The bottom of his helmet appeared back in place, just in case, and he felt Red’s energy pulse around him. 

The dragon roared and brought its paw up to its mouth, licking the now bloody wound, and then gingerly placed the paw onto the ground and tested its weight. It thrilled happily, and though a giant scaly monster with massive teeth shouldn’t have been adorable, Keith couldn’t think of a better word to describe it. It flopped down, and let out a massive sneeze, nasty stuff that Keith didn’t even want to think about, spraying everywhere, including all over him. 

“Gross,” he groaned as he tried to wipe it off so that he could see. In retrospect, the fact that he was more preoccupied with dragon snot than the dragon itself was actually really stupid, and he was thankful no one else was there to see it.

It wouldn’t come off just from rubbing it, so Keith went to the water to at least get his helmet cleaned off so that he could see, which meant either dunking his head and leaving his body exposed, or quickly taking the helmet off and dunking that while he kept an eye on the oddly docile dragon.

He went with the second option.

Keith was careful not to get anything on his face as he took his helmet off and quickly dunked it into the water. Luckily the salty sea water was able to clean it off fairly quickly. 

His hair brushed against his face as a warm breath rushed over him. Keith tensed and looked up at the dragon, who froze when they made eye contact. It had inched its way closer to him, and when he turned to stare, its pupils became blown out and wide, and it almost seemed to squirm like an excited puppy. 

What the hell? 

“Hi?” Keith asked, unsure of what was going on. 

The dragon lunged at him, fingers wrapping around his entire torso, and then kept going into the water. He hit the surface, too shocked to take a breath, but the second he tasted the salt water, Keith slammed his helmet back on, and the water was filtered out. He scrabbled for his bayard as it descended into the dark depths, but the claws blocked off the spot where it was kept within his suit, meaning he couldn’t summon it (that was a huge design flaw right there). 

He struggled and kicked as they went deeper and deeper until the only thing that illuminated the immediate area around him was the lights of his suit.

…

The Batarians warned Hunk that he should land Yellow away from the village that he apparently had to go to. The inhabitants were easily spooked, which was something Hunk could understand. He would freak out too if a giant mechanical lion came out of nowhere. He  _ had _ freaked out a bit. 

That didn’t mean that he  _ liked _ the fact that he had to walk for quite a while to get to his destination. It wasn’t that he was lazy, it was just that it was a lot of work. At least his suit kept him comfortable and not sweating like a pig in the middle of summer. 

This whole ritual thing was really strange. They needed to fetch some ingredients to bring together to form some sort of, what, potion? Or something like that. Yeah, weird. At the same time, he knew that there were many different groups of people on Earth that wouldn’t even talk to insiders without some sort of initiation thing, so maybe it was more like that? 

It wasn’t like the task laid out before him was  _ difficult _ from the sound of it. He needed to get some sort of scale from something that looked very much like a turtle, though for the life of him, Hunk couldn’t repeat the name they gave it. 

The outline of rooftops in the distance caught his attention. Honestly, he was sort of expecting huts or something like that, but the buildings seemed to be about two stories tall, and it looked like there were a lot of archways, which was kind of cool. It looked like they were made of the same material the Batarians used, but constructed in a completely different way.

“Wow,” he muttered as he eyed a massive door. “Whatever these guys are like, they have to be pretty big.” Maybe that was why they chose him to come here. Only Shiro was taller than him, and that was by about half an inch.

He finally caught sight of the locals, and he was honestly a bit weirded out. They looked like  _ turtles _ . Turtles who learned to walk on two legs, and exchanged their shells for flowing robes of an almost silk-like fabric. It was actually a tiny bit unsettling to see, his mind trying to reconcile it with what he knew of turtles on earth, but not quite able to do it. It was truly uncanny. 

His eyes fell to their scales that seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, and his stomach clenched in terror. They didn’t want him to  _ skin _ one of these people, did they? God, he hoped not. Hunk wasn’t  _ ready _ to kill someone with his bare, gloved hands. 

Almost reluctantly, Hunk made to go into the village. Maybe he could  _ talk _ to someone about what he was supposed to do. There might be a place to just buy scales from the turtle-thing. That’d be awesome. 

Then he came to a stop when he realized that there weren’t just turtle-people there. There, mingling amongst them in a surprisingly busy street, were  _ Galra _ .

Hunk ducked backwards and hid behind one of the structures, his heart beating wildly. Galra! And a lot of them! Was this a  _ trap _ they had been sent to? Split them up on crazy tasks and send them directly into traps   


“Hey mister, are you okay?”

His head jerked up and he stared at two small creatures, probably only up to his knees in height. One looked like a turtle person, actually with a protective shell on its back (they must shed them as they get bigger), and the other had soft purple fur and big yellow eyes. 

There was something very, very strange about seeing what was clearly a Galra child. Honestly, it never occurred to Hunk that he might actually see one. Like, yeah, they had to have kids and stuff to still be alive, but  _ still. _

“Uh, I’m good,” he choked out.

“Okay,” one of them said. “Just be careful by the woods. Mama says that there are big nasty Pudours nearby even though they’re normally far away, and they could grab people and drag them away and eat them! So don’t stay by the trees!” With that, the kids toddled off with a giant ball that he hadn’t noticed.

What the  _ heck _ was a Pudour? Hunk eyed the forest ,and decided he really didn’t want to know. He stood and scooted away from the trees more, his attention drawn back to the kids. Hunk watched them for a moment in pure confusion as he realized that they were just playing with one another. Happily tossing their ball back and forth. They weren’t enemies, it didn’t even look like it occurred to them to  _ be _ enemies in the first place.

An idea came to mind, one that seemed a bit crazy, but at the same time, it made sense.

What if not  _ all _ Galra were bad? If they were spread so far across the universe, there must be vast differences in some cases? And surely everyone didn’t agree with Zarkon?

He wet his lips as he peered around the corner again. The Galra wore the same kinds of clothes as the turtle people. He could see what appeared to be an open market, and it looked like both were buying and selling equally to one another. Like there were no differences between them. 

Maybe there wasn’t a difference between them here.

Slowly, Hunk walked around the corner. He had his bayard, and surely Yellow would come for him if he was in danger. He could feel that solid, comforting presence in the back of his mind that let him know he wasn’t actually alone there. 

It was odd to see Galra without their signature military uniforms on. Honestly, he hadn’t taken much time to consider them outside of an enemy, which was kind of short sighted of him, he realized. 

“Huh,” he breathed out as he looked around. “They all have pupils.” Not the blank, solid gold eyes like Sendak had. They had small, round pupils for the most part, although there were a few that seemed to have the wider irises of the turtle-people. A few had scales too. That was actually very telling, but so was the fact that they didn’t all look like that. There was still a division, but no one seemed to mind. 

“You there!” someone called out, voice low and gravelly. “In the white and yellow! What are you doing?”

Hunk looked around and then down at himself when he realized that he was the  _ only _ one there in white and yellow. He turned around to face the voice and saw one of the old turtle-people staring at him with interest. “Oh, hi! Uh, my name’s Hunk and uh, I’m here looking for scales? From a…” he trailed off and then tried to say the word, but somehow, he  _ knew _ he butchered it.

One of the Galra nearby snorted at that. “The Chigra haven’t sent someone to try that in a long time.”

“Indeed, they haven’t.” A few others stopped to listen to them as the old one narrowed their eyes. “But this one has a good spirit. Not like the Chigra at all. Not from here.”

“Yeah, definitely not from here. See I’m a Paladin of Voltron and we’re looking to bring down the Galra Empi…re.” He stared at the Galra, his heart suddenly racing. Good  _ god _ he was stupid sometimes. 

People whispered around him. No one was pulling out any weapons yet though, so maybe he hadn’t screwed things up enough yet. Actually, unless he was seeing things, it was like a few people were perking up a bit.

The Galra chuckled and said, “Well, good to know that someone is. Very good.”

What? Hunk blinked his eyes, trying to comprehend this. “But  _ you’re _ Galra, right?”

“And  _ you’re _ a Paladin of Voltron. The weapon that Zarkon has been searching for since the beginning of the empire that’s so horrifically powerful that we would be all under his control forevermore. Yet here we are, listening to you.”

Hunk wanted to protest that for a second before he realized that they were absolutely right. Horrible stories of Voltron were purposefully spread around to insight fear, so knowing that it was actually a real thing, actually a factor in the war, was really enough to make anyone go running.

“Okay, I get it,” he agreed with him. He thought about how to proceed, but realized that it might be better to be straightforward. “We’re looking to form an alliance with the Batarians, but they want us to do these trials first and mine was to get the scales. I don’t suppose that you could help?”

The old one chuckled. “The Chigra are the strongest force in our world, but not the only. We are all Batarians, though not all Batarians are the Chigra. They are brutes.”

What? “But they were slaves? They overcame the bad guys in the past?” Oh, were _ these _ the original ones that were in power?

“They did, and the world is better off without  _ them _ ,” the old one agreed. “That was millennia ago, and it has not prevented them from becoming what they once overcame. We have no desire to help the Chigra.” It focused its eerie gaze on Hunk. “We will help you though. The Empire will come eventually to steal our family.” They looked at the Galra around them. “We will do what we can to prevent that.”

Relief welled up within Hunk. “Thank you! And yeah, we’ll make sure that the Gal—well—Zarkon’s Empire doesn’t hurt you.” Another thought came to him that made Hunk squirm. “I, uh…don’t have to hurt someone to get the scales, do I? Because I  _ really _ don’t wanna do that.”

Laughter rang out around him, surprisingly light and genuine. 

“No, Paladin,” the Galra said, sounding terribly amused. “You need not hurt anyone to complete your task.”

“Come,” the old one said, turning to walk away. “We will show you.”

Hunk took a deep breath and set out to follow them. He really hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake and walking into a trap.

…

Fur. Of course Pidge needed to stalk through a forest to find some kind of fur. This entire thing was completely illogical and didn’t at all make sense. What would this tell the Batarians about them? That they knew how to follow instructions? 

Pidge looked down at the map that she projected from her gauntlet. Green got a scan of the area as they flew over, and she could still see the path back to her lion, but it was like the ground beneath her feet kept shifting and changing. Things seemed to grow and vanish the more she travelled, and that wasn’t just a metaphor. With every step she took, Pidge heard trees rustling and the ground cracking and splitting. Everything around her was dry and almost bare.

She groaned and turned off the projection. It was basically useless with how much the terrain around her seemed to change. Green did a single scan, but that didn’t seem to matter anymore. 

At least she knew if she ended up getting stranded by a cliff or something, that Green would be able to come for her. 

Dust kicked up around her as she walked, and Pidge was thankful that she had the foresight to keep her helmet entirely on, because she was sure that she would have died from dust inhalation by now. Seriously, they should have sent  _ Keith _ here. He was a desert rat, he would have been fine. Probably would have felt completely at home. Albeit, there were more trees here, but they were dead and spooky. 

A crunch caught her attention, and at first she thought nothing of it since it was surprisingly noisy for not having any visible life, but then the sound repeated. Once was just an event, twice could be a coincidence, but three times was a pattern, and there was definitely a pattern. 

There was something following her. 

Pidge swallowed and kept her gaze forward, not wanting to let whatever this thing was know that she knew it was there. That’s what she was supposed to do, right? Or what she supposed to make eye contact with it and scream or something? Was it a big animal, or something tiny? Sometimes tiny things could sound loud in the quiet, right? Except it wasn’t quiet, but it was a clear sound. Oh  _ god _ , something was going to jump her, wasn’t it?

Unable to help herself, Pidge swung around to look behind her at the dried, twisted trees. She scanned the area around her, but couldn’t see anything. What kind of creature lived out here anyway?

“It’s fast and good at blending into its environment,” she muttered, repeating the warning that the Batarians gave to her. “What kind of thing has fur that lives out here anyway?” Really, it could be anything. She just couldn’t help but compare most things they came across to the animals that she already knew to make sense of them. That was kind of just how the human brain worked most of the time. 

Pidge was an incredibly rational person. She liked science, evidence, cause and effect, programming, and math. Things like that made sense. What didn’t make sense was the shiver that went up her spine and the sheer knowledge that something was watching her. There was no empirical evidence to back up her claims, she couldn’t see any eyes or movement, but she just knew. 

Nothing happened as she stood still, so Pidge slowly started to walk again. At first, there was no strange crunching outside of her feet on the dry ground and the trees that cracked and twisted out of sight. It was really eerie how the environment just kept  _ changing _ .

Then she heard the footsteps again. It was so slight that her own ears would probably never pick up on it, but her helmet was a little more sensitive. At first she thought to turn that off, but now she was glad that she hadn’t. 

“Think logically,” Pidge muttered to herself, but then immediately stopped talking. There was no way to know how sentient whatever was following her was, and thanks to the translators, they’d likely be able to understand her. It was better to work out her thoughts silently.

(She wondered if that meant she’d be able to understand Rover back home. Maybe. She’d have to type that out later in her daily journal entry that she wrote to her mother.)

There didn’t seem to be much for fauna out here, so logically speaking, the creature following her was likely the one that she was looking for. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to get the fur from it, but if they wanted to get things moving with the Batarians, they’d have to get this ridiculous ritual over with. 

Her mind ran over how she could possibly trick this creature. The environment kept shifting and changing around her, so it wasn’t like she could actually make a plan based on that. Not to mention this creature would know its own habitat. 

Sweat dripped down the side of her face, and Pidge wanted to wipe it away, but she wasn’t about to open her helmet and expose any bit of herself right now. 

Despite how fast her mind went over every option it could possibly think of, she couldn’t come up with anything solid. There were too many variables. Hunk would probably be freaking out worse than she was right now, which didn’t seem possible because Pidge was pretty sure her arms were shaking, but it was still likely. Allura would insist on some kind of well thought out plan and would get extremely frustrated if said plan didn’t work. Lance would probably just try to flirt with it. Shiro would probably come up with some super awesome idea that would leave her in awe wondering how he did it. Keith would wing it.

That gave her pause. He absolutely would wing it. He’d start moving and take his environment as it was and work with it. Red apparently ran on instinct more than anything else, and it seemed to work with him. Maybe he really should have been the one to come there.

Pidge gritted her teeth together. She would have to get this thing to chase her, try to disorient it. She would have to wing it.

Her chest expanded as she inhaled deeply and closed her eyes to center herself. There was really nothing else to do. There was no signal to begin. She had no big plan. Pidge braced herself, took another deep breath, and  _ ran _ .

…

It was nice to be out in the sunshine on a world where they could actually take the time to breathe in the fresh air. Sure, that wasn’t what he was supposed to be focused on right now, but why couldn’t Lance enjoy that while doing his job at the same time? Or at least before he got on with the more difficult part of it? Some people were so intense about things and needed to relax a little bit.

His blue eyes trailed up the sloping paths before him that trailed up and around the side of the mountain that he was on. Lance was more than a little relieved that Blue was able to drop him this high up the soaring mountain that they were on. It would have taken  _ forever _ to try and climb it himself, even with his jetpack. 

The task given to him was easy enough. All he had to do was find a feather. Easy peasy. He needed to find wherever the bird was hanging out, and grab whatever loose feathers he found lying around. The hard part would be the fact that he had to hike up the rest of the way. It wouldn’t be too bad, there seemed to be actual paths winding up in slopes as opposed to steep ledges that he had to scale, and he had his jetpack too. It was still narrow enough that Blue couldn’t land any higher, and Lance knew that he’d had to put his helmet back on in a few minutes so he didn’t get lightheaded as he scaled upwards. He wanted to take a couple minutes to enjoy the nice clear air. Everything on the castleship and in their suits was fine, but there was something about the wind blowing gently that was so much nicer.

Blue purred in his mind, and Lance groaned. “Okay, okay, I’m going.” He shoved his helmet back on and started the very daunting task of walking up the steep slopes. Lance cast a quick glance to the side to where there were steep ledges straight down the tall cliffside. It was a really good thing that he wasn’t afraid of heights. Then again, he couldn’t be a pilot if he was freaked out by heights. It definitely spiked his adrenaline, but instead of fear he only felt excitement. He always wanted to reach the stars, and now that he was out there and home was far away (his stomach pulled a bit at the thought), he wanted to explore so much of it. Starting with this very weird mountain that kind of reminded him of soft serve ice cream.

Damn, he missed soft serve ice cream. Surely some alien planet they came across would have something like that? Lance would even take just having a cow to milk. He knew how pasteurization worked and between him and Hunk they could probably make ice cream or milkshakes or something.

One foot after another, Lance hiked up around the mountain. It was pretty good exercise, but Lance wished he could enjoy the fresh air and not just what his suit gave him. Oh well, it was probably for the best. He didn’t get altitude sickness this way. If that happened when he was alone, he’d probably end up dead. That was a morbid thought. The others might feel bad for a bit, but surely they’d find another Blue Paladin fairly easily enough.

Still, he managed to go up and up until there wasn’t much farther he could go. The trees that were there weren’t super tall, he’d seen ones way bigger on Earth, but they were thick and solid, with branches able to hold up heavy weights, which was very fortunate for the creature he was looking for, because it was  _ huge _ .

Lance stopped and stared in complete awe at the creature he was pretty sure he was looking for. It was much bigger than he expected it, probably able to lift him up and toss him right over the edge. Its feathers were vibrant shades of red, gold, and orange that glittered in the sunlight with an iridescent sheen. It shifted, long tail feathers trailing down.

When the translator conjured up the word firebird, the first mental image Lance pictured was a phoenix, but he didn’t actually expect to  _ see _ one. It definitely looked like that though!

Now that he found the creature, he had a new problem, how to get a feather from it. There were none littering the ground anywhere around it. Lance supposed he could try to scale the tree and grab one, but it would probably toss him off the cliff, and he wasn’t sure that Blue would come for him.

Lance bit his lip as another thought came to him. He  _ could _ shoot it. The firebird was such a big target that there was no way he’d miss. It would be easy enough to do. All Lance needed to do was hit it in a place where it would all happen quickly and there would be no suffering. That would guarantee that it wouldn’t attack him when he tried to grab the feathers.

He summoned his bayard, but the flash of light caught the bird’s attention. He should have expected that, since birds usually did have pretty good eyesight. He met the creature’s gaze, and his fingers wavered around his bayard.

A groan escaped Lance’s lips, and he let the weapon vanish. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t  _ kill _ another creature for a few  _ feathers _ , even if that was what the Batarians implied that he would have to do. That seemed like such a brutal waste of life, and he couldn’t believe the thought crossed his mind at all.

Now he was in the firebird’s sights, and he wasn’t sure what to do. The creature seemed to respond to every little motion he made, twitching and tilting its head.

Like the naturally dramatic person he was (so sue him, he loved drama club), Lance flopped to the ground, and the bird tilted its head so much that it was almost upside down. “Yeah, yeah, judge me more. All I had to get was a feather and I can’t even do that. Bet everyone else got their stuff already and with even harder tasks. Because I’m the loser, and I’m going to screw this up.”

He broke eye contact with the bird and looked up at the clouds rolling across the sky. The sigh that escaped Lance’s lips turned into a scream as the bird’s form suddenly appeared above him and dove down at him.

…

It went without saying that Shiro didn’t like this situation in the least. He hated the fact that the others had to go on individual missions to the four corners of the world without him. For a while, he thought that he would only be able to stand around and wait for them to come back, but as it turned out, he too had a task.

“There is a cauldron deep in the caves below,” one of the Batarians informed him. “It is needed to complete the ritual. You will go and fetch that for us.”

It was an easy enough assignment, but Shiro was wary about it all the same. Something didn’t sit right with him. It could have been the separation, since Voltron wasn’t supposed to be separate for long, or it could have been his instincts telling him that something was off with these people. Which was true, something was off about them. What were the odds of them having some specific ritual for five people? He was very skeptical about that.

The darkness didn’t help his suspicions. Honestly, Shiro wasn’t a huge fan of cramped places, but he could deal with them. He didn’t particularly like how dark it was in there either, the light from his suit barely illuminated two feet around him. He could fall off a ledge and not even see it coming.

“There’s a darkness in you.”

He came to an immediate stop and looked around. A shiver rushed up Shiro’s spine at the light voice. There was something almost hauntingly familiar about it.

“Shiro!” He jumped as someone screamed his name, his heart instantly leaping into his throat, his pulse pounding in his ears at the sheer terror in the voice.

“Keith?” he yelled back, and started to run in the direction it came from. They must have ambushed the other Paladins when they were separated. God, he was stupid. They never should have split up in the first place. Shiro couldn’t remember a time that he heard his brother sound so terrified. Keith was so, so brave to the point of ridiculousness, trying to hide the fear that he felt. If he was calling for him and sounded so terrified, it had to be bad.

Anger replaced his panic. Someone was hurting his  _ little brother _ . Maybe the others too. Shiro had every intention of showing them  _ exactly _ why he was called The Champion.

He rounded a corner and went through another cavern entrance, and the dark world immediately lit up. Shiro squeezed his eyes shut instinctively and groaned. A slow, steady beeping was the only thing he heard, until there was the shifting of sheets and then, “What are you doing with your eyes closed?”

Shiro’s eyes snapped open, and he lost his breath at the brightly lit, frighteningly familiar hospital room. The window was open, letting the warm breeze in the room. It didn’t take away from the fact that the man on the bed looked so much smaller than he used to be. It didn’t take away from the fact that the man before him was clearly at the end of his life.

“Tousan?” His voice shook at the sight of his long deceased father. The man smiled at him warmly and tried to hold out a shaking hand, but Shiro knew that it was too difficult for him to do that. Then he realized that the man wasn’t  _ actually _ smiling at him.

“Thinking.” Shiro watched, breath catching in his throat as his mother walked towards his father. She was just as beautiful as he remembered her.

“Have you decided?”

She pursed her lips together, and took his no doubt sore hand into hers. “There would be ways to do it. Ways that would make it painless and natural. But you…I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Please? This is no life worth living. A life would be with you and Takashi. Not this room. I want to go by my own means.”

Horror rushed over Shiro as he realized exactly what they were talking about. Something that had crossed his mind later on, though he didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t want to think about how his father died fairly suddenly, but no one questioned it because they knew his heart could go at any time. It was odd, because he actually saw his father the day he died. His father said  _ goodbye _ to him, like he knew it was the last time they would see one another.

As he got older, a part of Shiro looked back on that and wondered, but he couldn’t imagine that. He couldn’t picture it. His mother surely wouldn’t do that, would she? Then again, if it was what his father wanted, like he seemed to right now, was it wrong if she did do it?

His mother fought to try and save people. She was key in curing a nasty virus that spread years ago, made sure that  _ he _ was one of the first that got the vaccination to fight against it. She was also one of the last fatalities of said virus. It was never lost on him that  _ he _ got the vaccine and she didn’t. Though his mother never said anything about it, Shiro got the feeling that she gave hers to someone else, because she was that kind of selfless.

There was something about seeing it play out in front of him though, the conversation about whether his mother would purposely end his father’s life to stop his suffering. It wasn’t just watching them, it was the realization that this was his fate. Whatever the Galra did to him made him strong. It might have even extended his life, but in the end this was what would happen to him. He would be just as sore and frail as his father.

Shiro backed away from the scene, stumbling over a rock and back into the tunnel, his world becoming dark again, only the cyan light of his suit illuminating the world around him.

“What the fuck?” Shiro breathed out. That wasn’t  _ his _ memory. There was no way anything could gain access to that, so what the hell was going on? Whatever it was, he needed to get out of this tunnel.

Shiro turned, and jumped backwards, his hand activating and glowing a violent violet. He held his breath as he met the brown eyes that stared at him, completely unimpressed. “Adam?” He wasn’t real, Shiro  _ knew _ he wasn’t real, but he still couldn’t stop his voice from sounding so airy.

A part of him wanted to cry. Things with Adam ended  _ so _ badly, but he had loved him enough to say yes to marrying him. That was originally the plan. One more mission, then they could get married.

“You left me,” Adam said, his voice stern and accusing.

Despite the fact that he knew this wasn’t real, he couldn’t help but argue back. “You know why! You know why it was important to me to go while I could!”

“I know that you were selfish. You’ve always been that way. It’s all about Takashi. Couldn’t have a relationship without it only being about you. Couldn’t help foster a kid without it only being about you.”

“I didn’t—”

“You  _ didn’t _ decide to help Keith, a naturally talented pilot of Japanese descent, basically become what you always wanted to be? What you thought you couldn’t be on your own? A way for some version of  _ you _ to exist?”

Shiro pushed by Adam. He wasn’t real. He didn’t have to deal with this. He needed to get out of his cavern and whatever all of this was. All he needed was that stupid cauldron.

Despite the fact that he knew it wasn’t really Adam, the words still echoed in Shiro’s head. They weren’t true, were they? Yes, he knew that he saw a lot of himself in Keith when they first met, it was what caught his attention, but that wasn’t  _ why _ he helped him. Was it?

So distracted by his thoughts, Shiro didn’t catch the way his lights didn’t illuminate the floor beneath his feet. He yelped as the ground vanished from beneath him into a long, steep slope, like a giant slide from hell.

He rolled at the bottom, and only came to a stop when he hit something else. Dazed, Shiro lay still for a moment, before slowly pushing himself up. The lights on his suit flickered a bit at the impact, and it took him a moment to catch his bearings before he could turn around to see what it was that stopped his descent. It was heavy, but didn’t necessarily seem to be attached to the ground.

Shiro’s breath caught in his throat as horror exploded through his entire body, panic lancing through every nerve. “Hunk!”

Hunk lay entirely still, faced away from him. The lights of his suit were off, and he was so rigidly stiff Shiro was almost afraid to touch him, because he  _ knew _ what he’d find.

“This isn’t real,” he muttered, even though it felt very real. He ran into Hunk, didn’t he? If he could touch him, surely it was real, right? His parents and Adam were impossible, but Hunk was with him and he had been sent off to some random corner of the world alone supposedly. Or it could have been a trap of some sort, though there was really no point. Shiro was as trapped as one could be right now anyway.

He reached his shaking hand out, but paused. His shifting made the light of his armour reflect off of something else beyond Hunk. Shiro moved a bit, and his heart stopped. Not far beyond him were Pidge, Lance, and Keith. All of them were still and pale. None of them were moving.

“No, no, no.” Shiro very quickly scanned all four of them, searching for their vital signs, but nothing came up. It was as if they didn’t exist at all. “It’s not real. It’s not. This proves it. It’s not real.”

Something deep within him told Shiro that his instincts about this were right. These weren’t the real Paladins. These were some kind of distraction, something put it place specifically to hurt him. It didn’t make the nausea he felt any less real though.

Shiro couldn’t even bring himself to look at Keith. He wasn’t real, but he still couldn’t look over and see a fake version of his brother dead because it still  _ looked _ like him.

Footsteps from behind made Shiro tense. He jumped up and out of the way just in time as a massive sword came down on where he had been kneeling moments again. His pulse raced as he stood face to face with a massive figure in old red armour with glowing purple eyes. “Zarkon.”

Zarkon held up the sword and said, “You will fail.”

In that moment, Shiro snapped and lost every little bit of carefully cultivated self-control that he had. In that moment, he became the angry, young boy he had been after his mother passed, who lashed out at others before he learned not to.

“No, we won’t!” His hand started to glow the same colour as Zarkon’s eyes, and Shiro rushed at him. Sword and arm clashed again and again, but Shiro wasn’t about to give up. Not now, not ever. “We  _ will _ defeat you!” He dodged out of the way of the sword again, and brought his hand down on Zarkon’s head. 

Zarkon vanished, and everything around Shiro became brighter. Not enough to hurt his eyes, but enough to see that there were very faint, pale green stones glowing along the ceiling. The bodies of the other Paladins were gone, and all was still.

Shiro breathed heavily, reality catching back up to him as he slowly realized that he was standing in front of a cauldron, the one that he had been sent to find. He stumbled towards it and held onto the edge as he fell to his knees, helmet resting against the rim as he closed his eyes tightly.

That proved to be a mistake, because now the image of the others’ dead bodies was engraved into his mind, somehow more horrible than some of the other much more gruesome and violent things that he had seen.

He would get up eventually and bring the cauldron back up, but for now, Shiro needed a moment to collect himself. Though he wasn’t sure that would help much.

…

Keith honestly thought that he was going to go out in a fight somehow. Or doing something reckless like crashing a fighter or speeder. Something to that effect. It never once occurred to him that he was going to die deep in the ocean, but here he was, in the hands of a water dragon, farther beneath the surface that he ever could have gone in a human-made suit. Bless the Alteans and their crazy technology.

He stopped struggling long ago when he realized there was just no point. He wasn’t going to get away, and if he did, then what? It was pitch black, and he was sure that some other giant sea creature would nab him for lunch instead. What was the dragon even  _ doing _ ? Taking him back to their nest as a treat for their kids? Probably.

It was actually kind of terrifying behind in the dark. He could see at night even in low light, so he hadn’t really experienced darkness like this before. Then again, he wasn’t sure many people had.

Once they approached a place with glowing stones, Keith’s eyes were quick to adjust, to latch onto the little light they could to give him a faint image of a massive cavern.

Where the  _ fuck _ was he?

Keith twisted to look around, and his stomach dropped when he realized that there were  _ more _ dragons around him. Dragons that looked even bigger than the one holding him. They gathered in closer.

“I found this treasure.”

At first, Keith was super confused, and kind of thought that maybe he was going crazy, but then he realized that it was the  _ dragon _ . His translator  _ did _ work on it, and it just  _ ignored _ him. Okay, no, he wasn’t confused or crazy, he was _ pissed _ .

“It is alive,” another dragon commented in a faint, slightly distorted voice, no doubt due to the water.

“Yes, I’m alive!” Keith burst out with a thrash. “And I really don’t appreciate being kidnapped.” Whatever that translated to seemed to amuse these dragons more than anything else.

A big one swam around them in circles and eyed Keith closely. “Not one of those nasty beasties.” As if sensing what he was going to ask, it clarified, “The ones that try to kill us to claim the sea as well.”

The others hissed in anger, the sound instantly putting him on edge. He was so glad to not be whatever it was they were talking about. He thought for a moment, trying to figure out his options, when it occurred to him that he was sent there to kill a beast. Kill a dragon. The ones they were talking about were likely the Batarians.

“They told me to kill you to get a fang,” Keith blurted out, and he could almost hear Shiro screaming at him over his sense of self-preservation. Not that it mattered, since he was already kidnapped and trapped beneath the waves.

More hisses rumbled through the water around him, and Keith instinctively cringed back a bit. The hand holding him brought him up closer to the dragon, and he braced himself, hoping that this would end quickly. If he had to die, he didn’t want to suffer or go slowly. Not that he wanted to die at all. The thought had him panicking and struggling to get away from the dragon.

It stopped once he was eye level with it, eyeing him oddly. “You did not try to kill me. You helped me.”

“I don’t want to kill you,” Keith admitted. “I wanted to help you.”

“Why?”

“Because you were hurt and didn’t attack me.” This thing wasn’t eating him yet, so that was a good sign, right? These guys seemed pretty intelligent, so maybe he could communicate with them. “I’m a Paladin of Voltron. We came to this planet to make allies in the fight against the Galra, but they said we had to do a strange ritual first and sent me here.”

“I know of Voltron,” a low voice that almost reminded Keith of a whale. It was beyond eerie. “I was young back then. Why do you wish to stop them?”

“They hurt a lot of people,” Keith said. “They hurt my brother, and they’ll hurt so many others. I don’t…I don’t want them to separate families and hurt people.” When it came down to it, that’s what it was. He couldn’t  _ stand _ the thought of people being hurt for the gain of others. The thought of the Galra tearing families apart tore him apart too. It was also the  _ right _ thing to do. It was important.

Something around him chuckled loudly, and hell if that wasn’t one of the scariest sounds he ever heard. “A treasure indeed. But I suppose Voltron needs this one back though.”

“I cannot keep it?” the dragon holding Keith pulled him closer. He was pretty sure that without the armour, he would have been crushed. It was kind of hard to breath as it was, which wasn’t a comforting thought this far below the surface.

“This little one needs air to live,” the deep voice said. “And has many to help. Come, we will take him back.” There was a lot of movement around him, and then he was once again being carted along. Keith didn’t quite know what was going on, but it  _ sounded _ like they were going to bring him back to the surface. He couldn’t help but be hopeful as, gradually, they reached a part of the sea where light was able to penetrate the water.

Thankfully the adjustment to more light was gradual, so his eyes didn’t hurt too badly from the change. Maybe he wanted to cry a little bit when they breached the surface. Maybe. Not that anyone needed to know that. He looked around and realized that they weren’t at the same shore, in fact, it looked like they were at an island, but he could still feel Red, and knew that she would come for him.

_ “Was worried,” _ Red admitted across their connection.  _ “I don’t do well in the water. Would have come for you anyway.” _

No, Red wasn’t built for water. Red was built to withstand lava flows and to be able to approach a star without melting away. Water was Blue’s forte, not hers. It was heartwarming to know that, despite that, it meant that she never thought he was in true danger. Or maybe he never thought he was in true danger, or perhaps the thoughts and feelings didn’t properly reach her from so far away? Who knew?

The dragon sat him down, and Keith stumbled a little bit, his legs feeling a bit like jelly. He sank down to his knees and reached up to pull off his helmet. The need to feel the fresh air on his face had never been stronger than it was now.

He inhaled deeply, and then realized just how stupid he was. He was  _ surrounded _ by dragons.

Keith’s eyes snapped open and he looked around, startled to see that they were all staring back at him with their wide eyes. He couldn’t help but stare at their glittering scales in awe, so many different shades of blues, greens, purples, and blacks. All suited to disappear beneath the ways.

“It is so tiny and fluffy,” one dragon said as they inched closer. “Cute.” Above water, their voices weren’t so slow and terrifying.

Then he realized what they were saying, and his face turned red. “I—cute?”

“Oh, give it this!” A dragon vanished briefly before coming back and putting something on Keith’s head. He blinked, not quite understanding what was happening, and not daring to take whatever it was off. Instead, he held his helmet up and looked at the reflection on the visor. There was a _ crown _ on his head. A legitimate golden crown. What the hell? He looked up, about to demand an answer for what the heck was going on, but the dragons were suddenly all excited, scurrying around and grabbing things to either place on him or in front of him.

“I—uh…” He stared helplessly at the literal pile of gold, silver, gemstones, and whatever other metals were there. Keith was pretty sure that there was some physical GAC, the Galra currency, there too. “I…thank you?”

They cooed at him. Full-on cooed. It was honestly getting a tad insulting. God, they should have sent Lance here. A water-based mission plus being praised and showered with presents? Sounded right up his alley.

Obviously there were much worse situations he could be in, and in a way, it was a bit flattering to think that  _ dragons _ were as fascinated by him as he was of them. They were absolutely beautiful, so to have them think that he was cute in the same way a person would a puppy or something was strange but flattering.

“I think I need to go soon,” Keith said slowly, not wanting to upset anyone. It had to have been a long time at this point. He went to the bottom of the sea and back, and didn’t want Shiro to worry about him. Not to mention he was getting a little creeped out and didn’t want them to think that they could keep him or something. No, as amazing as these creatures were, it was best to put a bit of distance between them. “My frie—my team is waiting for me.”

There were a few unhappy rumbles, and the one that had kidnapped him earlier curled around him. “It will not stay?”

“I can’t.” Tentatively, Keith reached up and placed his hand on the dragon’s arm and tried not to internally freak out because he was  _ touching a dragon _ .

“You did not get your fang.”

Keith shook his head. “None of you hurt me, so I don’t want to hurt any of you.” It was fairly simple. He would defend himself if need be, he would fight things that were hurting others, but he wasn’t going to hurt something that was innocent. Yes, these dragons probably killed Batarians before, it probably went both ways. This wasn’t Keith’s battle to fight, since he assumed both sides could handle themselves equally. The Batarians were weird but didn’t seem to pose any huge threat to them, and the dragons had been nothing but nice, albeit, a bit clingy.

No doubt sensing his desire to go back to the others, Red flew to him. She was there in seconds, but that shouldn’t have surprised him at all since the lions could get across an entire solar system in moments. Red gently set down on the ground away from them, careful not to hurt any of the dragons.

“Um, thank you for, you know, not crushing me, or eating me, and bringing me back to the surface?” Keith wasn’t quite sure how to address these dragons that seemed to think he was a small puppy or kitten. He started to skirt around the literal pile of treasure that was around him, but one of the dragons huffed.

“You turn down our gifts?”

Alarm bells rang in his head. Nope. Shiro warned him about this one, and he wasn’t going to insult an alien dragon species because he rejected the treasure. “Uh, of course not. I was going to get a bag to carry it easier?”

That seemed to appease the dragons slightly, and Keith had no choice but to take everything into Red with him, entirely confused about what was happening.

The dragons coddled him a little more when he came back. “Our memories are very important, small treasure. Very important. Ours go back millennia. We learn to see good hearts and minds. True treasures.” One of them smiled, revealing multiple rows of wickedly sharp teeth that made a shudder go up and down Keith’s spine. Then one last gift was pushed into his hands. “You may have the fang, small treasure. Only use it for what you need.”

He stared in awe at the massive tooth in his hand. It was easily as long as his forearm, and a bit wider at the top. It was obvious that it was razor sharp, so Keith held it gingerly. He had the distinct impression that they didn’t give their fangs to anyone lightly.

Keith honestly didn’t understand why these dragons seemed to think that  _ he _ was some kind of treasure, but it was best to leave while he was still in their good graces, because once they realized that he wasn’t what they thought he was, they would change their minds. There’s no way they wouldn’t. He wasn’t a treasure for anyone or anything. That was just a fact of life.

“Come on, Red,” Keith muttered to the lion once he got back into the cockpit. She pushed a thought into his mind that actually made him laugh. They probably  _ were  _ richer than the Alteans now.

…

“Woah,” Hunk whispered as he stared at the temple. It wasn’t huge, rising to the sky like the ones in the main city were, but they were still so impressive. It was cut into what looked to be a round hillside, but beneath it had been burrowed out, pillars and stones holding the natural structure in place.

Now that he thought about it, it was kind of rounded like a turtle shell, wasn’t it? Almost like a turtle.

He couldn’t help but eye the Galra that passed by. Honestly, he hadn’t personally run into many of them yet himself, but his instincts screamed ‘fight’ at the sight of them. He knew that was wrong though. How many people on Earth thought the worst about him at a quick glance? He’d always been taller and larger than average, and combined with his dark skin, well, a lot of people thought less than stellar  _ things _ about him.

There was something so odd about seeing the Galra this way. They didn’t wear dark, rigid uniforms. They didn’t carry themselves with an air of malice, but rather with a strong, quiet pride that seemed almost familiar to him. Shiro popped into mind, but no, that wasn’t quite what he was thinking of. Admittedly, Shiro was a tad more showy than Hunk expected. He was probably thinking about someone at the Garrison.

Hunk kind of wished he could hold himself that way, with such assurance and purposefulness. Not that he felt terrible about himself or anything, he was pretty content with who he was. It was a bit different from  _ that _ though. Like, Hunk still had to actively stop himself from being queasy every time he flew in Yellow. It helped that there were no real windows, no real perspective on up and down when they were in space. Sure, he could float away, but Yellow was huge and sentient, and seemed to like him enough to come and get him. A grumble in the back of his mind assured him of that.

It would still be nice to be able to walk around as confident as these Galra though.

The inside of the temple was beautiful. The entire hill was hollowed out above him with multiple levels of what looked like books, scrolls, carvings, glowing spheres of some sort, holograms and so much more. It was such an odd combination of things that showed the progression of their people throughout the centuries in one spot. It was kind of amazing.

They approached a set of stairs that led up to a smooth platform covered in pillows. Hunk hesitated to sit on one like everyone else until they insisted on it.

An ancient looking figure came towards them, and Hunk had to wonder just how long these people lived? Galra had very extended lives, and turtles (or were they tortoises?) on Earth lived for a long time so maybe these guys did too?

“Hello, young visitor,” the old turtle person said. “I have been told that you seek some scales?”

“Yes,” Hunk squeaked out, unable to help himself. This person had such a presence to them that he couldn’t help but feel small. In a sense, it was almost like Allura at times, where sometimes she seemed bigger than life. It was no surprise that she was mistaken for a Goddess once. This turtle guy had the same feel to him.

“The scales you seek come from the creator of this world. Would you listen to the story?”

He straightened his spine and nodded his head eagerly. “I’d love to hear.”

The elder began their story of a world created from the back of the creature that Hunk couldn’t pronounce, but really looked like a turtle to him. It struck some chords in his mind. There were indigenous cultures on Earth whose religions had highly similar stories. He couldn’t really remember details, but maybe he’d seek out someone to politely question.

Hunk perked up just slightly. Maybe he’d keep a journal talking about all the different cultures they observed while traveling. It would be super interesting and a ton of fun.

The story was long, and the elder spoke very slow, but no one yawned, hunched over, or anything like that, even though they likely heard the story many, many times before. That was kind of inspiring in a way. Even the Galra that lived there paid close attention. Hunk got the impression that the Galra in the Empire (because these ones clearly  _ weren’t _ a part of that), likely didn’t have any kind of religion. Or maybe they thought Zarkon was some kind of god? That would make sense in a way. People in the past controlled others through such things, and though Hunk couldn’t remember how long Galra lived, he knew it wasn’t 5,000 years. It would be easy to trick the Galra into thinking he was some kind of deity.

Despite his wandering thoughts, Hunk paid attention to the story. When the elder was done, he could only stare in awe. “Wow, that’s  _ amazing _ !” He wasn’t sure if it was true, that this world came into existence on the back of a turtle, but who was he to question that?

The elder shakily stood and inched over to something behind him before turning back to Hunk, a tiny bag in his hand. “Scales for you.”

His eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yes. Few outsiders are willing to listen with interest, and without argument. You have much respect for others around you. That is something we cherish here.” The elder tilted his head. “You have a heavy task before you. You wish to stop Zarkon’s rule?”

“Yes,” Hunk agreed quickly, before once again really remembering that there were Galra around him. He tensed a bit, unable to help himself even though he was pretty sure that these guys weren’t going to hurt him. They weren’t the same. He could  _ tell _ they weren’t the same.

It made him wonder what Allura or Coran would think of a place like this. They probably wouldn’t believe that Galra could live peacefully with others.

“Do you believe you can stop him?”

Now, wasn’t  _ that _ a loaded question? His brow furrowed as he thought. “Well, there aren’t many of us yet, but we hope to get more people to fight with us, you know? That’s why we came here in the first place. But the Princess is really determined, and Coran, her advisor, knows a lot. Pidge is super smart, Shiro’s an awesome leader, and Keith is just…well…awesome.” He was going to say badass, but he wasn’t sure how that would translate. “And Lance is…” Hunk trailed off as he thought of all those times Lance crashed the simulator, ignored what he was saying or his feelings, or acted almost mean towards him, and all the times he led him into trouble. Seriously, he never had a detention before hanging out with Lance. “Lance is a good person. And me…well…I’m  _ trying _ . I want to do the best I can to help others. I’m not good at it yet.”

Reality was, Hunk knew he was the weak link on the team when it came to battles. Sure, he was smart and good with engineering, but the thought of being in the middle of a fight made him queasy.

Then  _ again _ , on the Balmera he just did what he had to do and put that queasy part of his mind to the side. Maybe that was just because he knew Shay needed him.

A few of the others around him whispered, and the elder pressed the bag of scales into his hand. “Trying is the start. Sometimes it is all you can do.”

Hunk held the small bag to him almost gingerly. He knew it was important, very important to these people, and he wasn’t going to do anything that could risk it. “Thank you.” He meant that. For both the scales, the advice, and maybe a bit because this small trip reminded him that not all Galra they came across would be their enemies.

For all the worries he had earlier, this trip turned out to be actually enjoyable. He loved learning about other cultures, and was definitely going to do a journal about all of the places that they came across. Sure, the castle might have that already, but it wouldn’t hurt.

A few children ran by him, laughing and playing. Little Galra were actually pretty cute. All of them were fluffy. A lot of the pictures of Galra in the castle showed them with skin or scales as opposed to fur, so he wondered if that was an environmental adaptation on this planet, or if baby Galra just were fluffy?

That was when a  _ terrified _ scream echoed through the air. Hunk whipped around in time to see one of the little Galra pulled into the jungle.

Hunk  _ ran _ after them, the bag of scales vanishing into the little storage compartment. He crashed through the foliage, his bayard appearing in his hands instead.

The kid was being dragged towards what looked like a giant, mutated venus flytrap from hell. There was some kind of thick, brown sap oozing from its mouth that was surrounded by razor sharp teeth as it drew the screaming, struggling Galra in closer.

He raised his bayard up, and screamed as he fired the cannon over and over again. His weapon wasn’t designed for precision, but it was designed for power. That said, his aim was true and he hit the vines that held the child, who quickly ran and hid behind Hunk as he continued to unleash hell on the creature. Brown and green goo and pieces he didn’t want to think about flew in all directions, but he didn’t stop firing until he couldn’t see the monster anymore.

Hunk panted wildly as he looked left and right, eyes darting every which way to see if there were any other horrible plant monsters anywhere as he slowly started guiding the little Galra backwards. He didn’t dare turn his back on the forest, just in case.

That had to be the most  _ horrifying _ creature they’d come across yet, and he wasn’t about to let his bayard fall. His hands wanted to shake, but he didn’t dare let that happen while holding such a powerful weapon. The last thing that he wanted to do was accidentally flail and shoot a civilian.

“Mama!” He glanced over his shoulder and saw the little Galra run to their mother, who was taller and wider than Hunk and yikes, female Galra were  _ big _ . He was pretty sure she was bigger than Sendak. Maybe they were a species where the females were bigger than the males?

“Thank you,” the woman said to him as she hugged her child close. There were tears unashamedly in her eyes.

For whatever reason, his brain fixated on the fact that apparently Galra could cry. That was something he hadn’t thought about before.

“Not good at it yet.” Hunk jumped when he saw the Elder from earlier approach, the bag of scales once again in their hand. “That is what you said. And yet, I just witnessed you save a kit from certain death. Those Pudour are not natural. An invasive experiment gone wrong from the Chigra long ago.” Wise old eyes stared at him. “You are afraid.”

Hunk’s bayard fell from his hands, vanishing in a flash of light. He clasped his palms together, as if that would stop the shaking, because oh my  _ god _ , a plant just tried to eat a kid, and he went full Rambo on it without any hesitation at all. What even was that? Not the plant, invasive experiment, got that. What had happened with him? Adrenaline was one hell of a drug apparently.

“I—” The bag of scales was once again shoved back in his hands.

“If you believe that you are the weak link of Voltron, then you will defeat Zarkon,” one of the elderly Galra said seriously. “That is an instinctive bravery, a need to help others, that takes a long time to be forged. I did not expect it from you.”

“Neither did I,” Hunk admitted. He could feel Yellow reach out to him, worried but offering him comfort. If he wasn’t mistaken, which he could be because his mind was running a mile a minute, Yellow felt  _ proud _ .

“I would ask of you a favour, if you will,” the Elder spoke and nodded to someone else. They came towards Hunk with a box in their hands. “The Chigra wish to have this, but we do not want them to. I would ask that you take care of it. Some day, it will make its way back to us, so you need not worry. Just care for it. Please wait to look.”

Hunk gingerly took the box into his hands along with the scales, forcing them to stop shaking from the surprisingly heavy weight. He didn’t know what it was, but he was going to respect their request. He didn’t at all like the Baterians—the Chigra, if they were the ones making monsters like that. Whatever this was, he wasn’t going to let them have it.

“I promise,” Hunk agreed. “I’ll take good care of it. I swear.”

It was only when he was back in the safety of his lion, in the little room that was put aside with a bed, that Hunk allowed himself to look inside.

He gaped in shock at the shimmering, almost glass-like object within the box, knowing exactly what it was from the warmth that radiated off of it.

It was an  _ egg _ .

…

Pidge decided that she  _ really _ needed to work on her stamina. Surely the castle had something like a treadmill for cardio training? She wasn’t exactly strong or fast, and relied on boosts from her jetpack to keep her out of range of whatever it was chasing her.

Then again, she also kind of had the impression that it was  _ toying _ with her. That it would be fast enough to tackle her if it wanted to, and that was terrifying.

“Think, think, think,” Pidge mumbled to herself, eyes darting as she ran. “Okay maybe if I—” She cut herself off with a startled scream as something leapt at her. She dodged out of the way, choosing to run in zig-zags instead of going straight. That was something people were supposed to do, right? Quiznak, she didn’t know. She just had to keep moving.

“Don’t think,” she told herself. “Be Keith. Be Lance. They don’t think.”

Something yowled behind her, a sound that started deep and tapered off high pitch and sent shivers up her spine.

Out of the corner of her eye, Pidge saw a shadow leap at her, and in that same moment, a tree literally popped out of the ground in front of her. Her bayard appeared in her hand, and Pidge aimed at the tree, holding on tightly as she swung herself through the air.

The creature stumbled, rolling onto the ground, and Pidge used her momentum to throw herself at it with a loud cry. It yowled again as she landed on top of it, fingers curling into its fur. It thrashed beneath her, until she went flying and rolled on the ground herself.

Pidge brought her legs up towards her stomach, glad that she had her armour on but not sure how it would do against claws. She braced herself for the impact of the creature tackling her in turn, but nothing happened. It was still there, she could hear its heavy panting, but it didn’t seem to be moving at all.

She peeked up at it cautiously, getting a good look at the creature for the first time. Her heart leapt when she realized that it looked like the pictures of tigers on Earth, a species that had gone extinct in the wild a long time ago.

It stalked back and forth, brilliant green eyes focused on her. Pidge moved slowly, sitting up and staring directly at it. It was truly a beautiful creature with fur that seemed almost iridescent, shifting in colour as it moved. There was a bit of that fur in her hand, which is what she was after in the first place. The Batarians never told her the quantity that she needed so what was in her hand was good enough.

Slowly, Pidge stood, freezing as it growled at her, hunching down to pounce.

A second, much louder roar echoed around them as Green slammed to the ground beside her, everything cracking and shifting beneath her giant, metal paws. The other creature scrambled back, intelligent eyes staring at this new challenger.

Pidge wasted no time climbing up into her lion, heart pounding wildly as she slumped onto her seat, staring at the shining fur in her hand.

“I am  _ never _ doing that again,” she gasped. “Think like Keith. Was what I thinking?” Well, maybe there was some merit to it, because if she would have stopped to plan out her actions, that tiger-alien probably would have got her.

She calmed herself down, and then urged Green to fly. It was time to get all of this over with so they could get back to the castle ship.

“Note to self,” she muttered, “don’t tell mom about this in my journal.” Green rumbled with amusement as she flew.

…

When the bird flew down at Lance, his life flashed before his eyes. He thought for sure that he was about to be lifted off to be food for hidden baby birds or maybe even this thing. That was not how he wanted to go!

Okay, well, having someone tell others that he was taken down by a  _ phoenix _ was kind of cool cause come on, it was a phoenix. Not that anyone would  _ know _ .

The thing was though, the bird  _ didn’t _ pick him up. It didn’t try to peck at his suit to try and get at his soft parts like he was some kind of coconut. No, all it did was sit on him like it thought he was some oversized egg.

“Uh, hi?” he asked once he realized that he wasn’t about to die. This bird was  _ heavy _ , and he could feel the pressure on his chest, but his suit kept the weight from crushing him, thankfully. This thing looked  _ way _ bigger up close. “Whatcha doing?”

It trilled in response, made itself comfortable, and that was that. The phoenix would look at him from time to time, and around the area, but it didn’t really do much. In fact, it tucked its head under its wing and went to sleep at one point!

Lance groaned as he stared up at the sky. Of course this happened to him. “I bet the others are doing really awesome things! Like fighting bad guys, figuring out ancient puzzles, or outsmarting booby traps. Then there’s me. There’s always me.” He sighed. “You know, I can see it already. Pidge and Hunk are super smart. Shiro’s a badass leader. Allura’s amazing. And Keith’s basically good at everything he does. So unfair. One single person should not be blessed with brains, physical ability, and good looks. Totally not fair.” Lance paused. “Aesthetically, of course. I mean, a dude can tell when another dude is hot. It’s the same thing as looking at Allura because who can deny that she’s smoking too?”

The phoenix looked at him at that, and cooed in response, a bit of smoke rising from its body. Lance snorted at that. “Exactly.” He sighed again and fell silent.

That didn’t last very long at all. “So like, any chance I can have a feather for some weird ritual?” The phoenix shifted, moving its tail feathers away from him. “Okay, yeah, that’s fair. I wouldn’t like it if someone came and asked for my hair for some reason.”

Reality was, Lance had absolutely no idea how long he laid there. Blue felt amused more than anything else, so he didn’t think that he was in any kind of danger. Well, outside of the danger of being bored, which she didn’t seem to think was a priority. So he chatted to the bird, who would coo or caw at times.

“—And then, after I collected all the flowers for mi Mamá, Marco had the gall to swipe them for this girl he was trying to impress! Can you believe that? He’s always been a jerk!” Lance sighed again as he made out shapes amongst the clouds. “It was always Luis and Veronica, and then Marco and Rachel. Rachel’s only a year older than me but it was like I was her super annoying little brother, like she was so much older than me. They all laughed at me when I said I wanted to go to the Garrison, you know? Shiro came to talk to us in school, and like, I knew Veronica went there already and that made me already wanna go. So it wasn’t that weird that I wanted to fly too, right? They all laughed and said I wouldn’t be good enough to get in, let alone be a fighter pilot!” He waved his free hands around. “Shows what they know, I did get in.” His voice lowered as he remembered. “I just happened to get in the year  _ Keith _ was there, so I didn’t get in. So they were right.”

Well, Lance could admit that getting into the top twenty after the one in first place was given the boot wasn’t exactly replacing  _ that _ person. No, Keith was replaced at the top of the list by James, and everyone else was bumped up a spot. Lance just happened to be at the top of the wait list. A good enough cargo pilot on paper. Able to run the super easy simulations.

Maybe he did let his ego get the best of him when he finally got to be a fighter pilot, but it was his  _ dream _ .

“It sucks, you know, being the one on the waitlist, the one that might be ahead of others but isn’t special enough. The one who just happens to be there by sheer luck. You probably don’t know what that’s like though.” He tilted his head down to look at the bird. It really was absolutely beautiful.

Dark eyes studied him for a moment before it took off, winding him a bit. Lance sat up, watching as it flew off into the clouds, maybe to get something to eat, he didn’t know. What he did know was that, when he moved his head, he caught a flash of red and gold. There, caught in the groove of his armour, was one of its feathers. Not one of the super long tail feathers, but the Batarians hadn’t described which ones they wanted exactly. It would have to do.

Lance pried it out of the suit as he stood up, staring at it blankly.

Always sheer, dumb, luck.

….

Keith was the last one to set back down in the Batarian’s city. Black stood tall and proud as always, but the others were already there too, talking to one another in a tightly knit group. His stomach twisted a bit at the sight of them, but he shrugged that aside. He had a job to do right now, and honestly, after what the dragons said about these people, he was a bit nervous after having left Shiro alone with them.

Shiro was his  _ older _ brother, yes, but anyone who actually knew Shiro knew for a fact that he couldn’t go long without getting himself into some kind of trouble. Adam claimed that it was where Keith got it from.

As he approached the others, Keith realized that Hunk was holding up someone’s orange phone from Earth. He knew that Lance and Pidge still had them, but didn’t know whose it was. Not that it mattered, since they were just glorified cameras now, unable to do much else. 

“I can’t believe you got a  _ pet _ out of all this,” Lance groaned as he looked at the picture Hunk was showing him. Keith got close enough to see that there was an egg in it made from what looked like precious stones and crystals. “That’s so not fair. I want a pet alien turtle!”

“Shh,” Hunk hissed at him. “They didn’t want these guys to get it, or know about it. There was even a little note inside that the suit translated about it.”

“So, Hunk learned a lot about the culture and history of this planet, I battled it out with a killer tiger, and you just…laid there until a feather fell on you?” Pidge asked as she smirked at Lance. Neither she nor Hunk seemed to notice that Keith was there too.

Lance’s arms crossed in front of him. “Please, all I had to do was ask. Like, why would I  _ want _ to do those things? One’s a snore and one’s exhausting.” His head whipped around so quickly towards him that Keith actually was startled. “What did  _ you _ end up doing, Keith?”

Keith’s lips parted to reply, but he paused for a moment, eyes studying his face. He had no idea that Lance’s stomach felt like it twisted end over end as Keith’s expression changed. No idea that Lance was hoping and praying that he wasn’t the only one that didn’t really do anything. No idea that Lance couldn’t decipher the look on his face, because he wasn’t hostile, teasing, or anything like that.

What he somehow did catch onto was the fact that Lance was acting out. The realization surprised Keith a bit. He wasn’t sure how to work with this scenario, but decided to just roll with what he thought was the right answer for once. “I just watched the dragons for a bit. A fang got left behind, so I grabbed it.” 

“You saw  _ dragons _ ?” Pidge asked in awe.

“Hey wait, turtles, tigers, phoenixes, dragons…that sounds just like—” Hunk was cut off as the Batarians approached them.

Keith’s shoulders tensed and his eyes narrowed as he noticed a specific lack of his brother anywhere with them. “Where’s Shiro?”

“Your Black Paladin awaits in the ritual chamber.” One of them looked over the four Paladins with an almost probing stare. “My, you did do it. Come along.”

“That’s not sketchy at all,” Hunk muttered quietly. The four of them walked close together so that nothing could get in between to try and separate them, just in case. Maybe Keith was naturally too suspicious or paranoid, but everyone else seemed to be on the same page as him.

“If they have Shiro strung up or something, we revolt,” Pidge replied, sure to keep her voice down. Keith mentally agreed with her.

The room that they entered was actually very eerie. It looked so much bigger from the inside compared to the outside. The walls were a dark stone, lined with sparkling, bright gemstones. In the center of the room was a large, black cauldron, and kneeling in front of that was Shiro.

Keith felt like his heart stopped as he saw his brother’s bowed head. He rushed forward to his side to see what was wrong, mentally preparing to enact some form of vengeance on someone. “Shiro?”

…

Patience yields focus. It was a mantra Shiro used for quite a while. Patience for his treatments. Patience for when things didn’t work out right. It was all so important. So after he situated the cauldron in the room the Batarians indicated, he took a moment to close his eyes and get his bearings back.

He kept seeing Zarkon in his head. Kept hearing his words. He kept seeing everyone else dead. None of that was acceptable. They had to do something more than just help small planets, though those were just as important. They still had Sendak on the ship, and he knew that Coran was looking into a way to access his memories without waking him up and making him a threat, but they still should have done  _ something _ with him by now.

With all those thoughts floating around in his mind, he didn’t completely register someone calling his name, and he certainly wasn’t expecting someone’s hand to land on his shoulder.

His eyes snapped open and Shiro jerked around, his fist glowing as he swung wildly. His target was yanked out of the way, and his hand slammed into the ground, creating a dent in the stone that smoldered.

“Holy  _ shit _ !” Lance’s voice broke Shiro out of his haze. He blinked and took in everything around him. Pidge was gaping at him, and Hunk had his bayard in his hand, as if he was ready to change it into his cannon, looking more than a bit stunned. To his other side, Keith and Lance were sprawled on the ground, Lance’s arms around his shoulders. Lance looked  _ pissed _ , Keith looked shocked.

Then it hit him what happened. That was Keith’s voice he faintly heard earlier, and it must have been him that touched his shoulder. Somehow, Lance managed to yank him out of the way before Shiro was able to hit him, and judging from what he did to the rocks, that would have been more than a little bad.

“Oh god,” Shiro gasped out, the light vanishing. He could have just  _ killed _ his little brother. All because he couldn’t get a grip on his own mind. The hand deactivated. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

“It’s okay,” Keith assured him, shifting away from Lance and closer to him without any hesitation at all. “I shouldn’t have done that. No one was hurt.”

The man wanted to cry at that. Shiro was pretty sure that if he murdered a man in cold blood, Keith would still try to see the good in him and try to explain away why something wasn’t his fault. He had no idea what he did to have this young man in his life, but he was so thankful, even if it was clear that Keith really did have an issue with his borderline hero worship, as odd as that was to say.

“I’d never purposely hurt you, especially not with this thing,” Shiro waved his arm at him. “None of you.”

That seemed to be good enough to Pidge, who approached him without any worry. “We all got everything that we needed.”

“Good, that’s good.” Shiro stood and helped Keith up. Lance and Hunk still eyed him warily, and that was good. It was good for someone else to be on their toes. He’d have to thank them later, especially Lance. “This is the cauldron we have to use.”

“Good. You have everything that you need,” the Batarian leader said as they came into the room with a flourish. “Present your treasures.”

Shiro watched as everyone held out the things that they were sent to receive. Pidge had a handful of iridescent fur, Hunk had some gleaming scales, Lance had a shimmering feather, and Keith had a sharp fang.

The Leader nodded at everything, but froze when they got to Keith’s. “Where is the blood?”

“Excuse me?” Keith replied, his eyebrows shooting up.

“You were tasked to  _ kill _ the monsters and retrieve the fang. There is no blood.” The leader’s eyes narrowed darkly. “You have failed the trial. Blood must be spilled for the ritual to continue, and as the failure, it must be yours.”

Keith didn’t have the chance to be taken back by that. Shiro shoved his way between the Batarian and his brother, glaring at the alien furiously. Knowing Keith, he probably had enough life threatening adventures today, and didn’t need another one. None of them did. A quick look around told Shiro that everyone was absolutely done with this stupid planet.

“We are the Paladins of Voltron,” Shiro said, straightening his shoulders. “We will do anything we can to protect the universe, and that does come with bloodshed, but it doesn’t mean mindless violence. That’s not what we do, now or ever, because it would make us no better than the Galra. All of my Paladins retrieved what you asked them to, and they did it without permanently hurting other living beings. You will  _ not _ be punishing them for that.”

“Why would I kill the dragons?” Keith spat from behind him. “Just because something looks like a giant monster at first doesn’t mean that it is.”

“I’m with Keith there,” Hunk agreed. “Like, listen, I will be the first one to admit that scary things are scary, and this world has a ton of really freaky things here, but like, preconceptions can cloud your judgement and close your mind. Not everything that looks bad is bad.”

“And nature is nature,” Pidge added. “You can make all these big plans and think that you know exactly what steps are best, but sometimes that doesn’t work and you really have to feel it out. And I wasn’t there, but it feels to me like less bloodshed is better.”

“The obvious solution isn’t always the best one,” Lance said, his voice tinted with anger. “Taking something’s life shouldn’t be the easy option to answer.”

Shiro couldn’t help but feel so proud of all of them. He actually almost shed a tear when he realized how serious they were being. Without a doubt, Shiro would fight to keep every single one of them safe, even from these creatures. That was why he awaited the backlash from the leader, but surprisingly, they were  _ smiling _ at them.

“Now place your treasures in the cauldron.” They motioned towards the glorified pot that Shiro brought up earlier, and they were all more than a little surprised to see that it was  _ glowing _ a vibrant gold. That wasn’t eerie or anything. “It will give us the answers we seek.”

“Shiro?” Keith asked, the other three looking over as well.

“Do it.” The faster they did this and got out of there, the better. He didn’t like this place at all. These creatures were way too manipulative.

They poured everything in and stepped back as thick smoke rose from within the cauldron, swirling with more colours than they could truly comprehend. It twisted, slowly forming a shrouded, humanoid shape. Shiro shuddered slightly as the Batarians fell to their knees, heads low to the floor. He suddenly wasn’t sure that what they had done was a good thing.

“Oracle,” the Batarian leader spoke from their bowed positions. “These visitors completed the quests to bring articles from all corners of our world to seek your wisdom.”

“Voltron,” the shadows whispered, though it also sounded like it boomed from all corners of the room. “Their hearts are good, and their intentions true. Siding with them will bring our world prosperity. For my word is final.” The smoke swirled through the air, twisting around the five of them. Shiro tensed, waiting for something to happen, but all the smoke did was move around them. Then, for a split second, Shiro’s vision went blank. He saw nothing but an endless blackness. The next second, he was back with everyone else. 

  
Hunk was rubbing his forehead, Pidge stared off into the distance, Lance looked completely stunned, and Keith seemed beyond confused. 

“What was  _ that _ ?” Hunk asked as he looked up. “Did you guys see it?”

Shiro looked at him, confused. He hadn’t seen anything. The smoke swirled around them one more time before settling over the cauldron again. “Be warned, the enemy is not what you think. You must look beneath the surface to find the truth. For my word is final.”

The smoke started to dissipate and the Batarians all said, “For your word is final.”

Just like that, it was over.

“Did anyone else see something super weird, or was that just me?” Lance asked, raising his hand up in the air as if he was asking a question in class.

“I was wearing a Garrison uniform,” Hunk spoke up. “I was in a kitchen and I looked really sad. That’s all I saw. It definitely never happened ‘cause it was the staff kitchen.”

“I saw like this dark, starry world,” Lance replied eagerly. “The ground was like water, and reflected the sky, and I was glowing and it was so weird. I was just kneeling down with--someone. I didn’t see who.” His shoulders tensed and he shrugged.

“I saw a dog.” They all looked at Keith oddly, and he shrugged. “Like, a blue glowing alien dog. It was sitting with me.”

“I saw Matt,” Pidge whispered. Her hand went to the green V on her armour. “I was wearing this, and he was there. I couldn’t see him too well but it was him.” Her eyes welled up, but her tears didn’t fall. 

“What did you see?” Keith asked Shiro, curious.

By some stroke of luck, he didn’t have to answer, because Lance interrupted with another question. “Okay so clearly that Oracle or whatever it is, is important, and like, I’m pretty sure they showed us the future, but like, why do they always have to be  _ cryptic _ ? What does that last part even mean? The enemy is not what we think?”

“The Oracle’s world is final,” the Batarian leader told them. “You were gifted with a small glimpse of your future. It is an honour. And as such, we agree to your alliance.” There was no doubt or hesitation to their decision, which Shiro supposed was a good thing. It meant that they could get out of there and discuss everything that happened away from those that might get offended by some of their more straightforward Paladins. “And to celebrate, we invite you to feast with us.”

The aliens around them all cheered and seemed excited, but Shiro mentally groaned. He just wanted to go back to the castle. Still, he slapped a smile on his face and said, “We’d be honoured.” He cast a quick, stern look at the other Paladins, cutting off any arguments or protests before they could even start.

They were still on the clock, and still had a job to do. He also wanted them well and distracted while he sorted out his thoughts. Shiro didn’t have to think about why he didn’t see anything when everyone else did. The thought that it just skipped him didn’t even occur to him until later. 

No, Shiro knew what was going to happen already. It was something that he’d known for years and years, and could still feel within himself now.

Not even an Oracle could show him his future if he didn’t have one.

…

Allura sat on her bed alone, her four mice playing a board game with Coran. They alerted her through their link to the fact that the Paladins were all back, tired but in one piece and with good news, but she barely acknowledged that. Lost in her father’s journals.

At first, it was odd. She didn’t want to see what was there, and refused to read it all. What the Batarians said about Alteans didn’t ring true to Allura. It just didn’t sound right. Yes, the words “primitive”, and “lower life form” came up again and again, and perhaps that was a bit harsh when she actually sat down to think about it. It was something she initially thought of the Arusians and even the Balmerans before, because Alteans were quite advanced in comparison, even now 5,000 years later.

Whatever horrors that the Batarians seemed to think the Alteans inflicted on them couldn’t be true. Such claims were entirely unfounded, weren’t they? Alteans had always been one of the most advanced species around, so it was only naturally that they would want to help others? There was absolutely nothing wrong with that, was there? She didn’t think so at first, but the fact that others did seem to think so planted a small seed of wariness.

She closed her father’s journal and laid back in her bed, a headache pounding at her skull. Surely if others were more advanced, they would have stepped up more to help the Alteans against the Galra in the past, right? None of them came to help, many staying neutral.

As Allura closed her eyes and let her exhaustion pull her into a fitful sleep, a horrible, horrible thought poisoned her mind.

_ What if none of them came because they didn’t want to help them? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story now has fanart! My awesome beta commissioned the super talented [bianzartz](https://bianzartz.tumblr.com) to make something for this chapter.
> 
> [ Check it out. It's AMAZING. ](https://bianzartz.tumblr.com/post/629646062806761472/commission-for-silvermoon-based-on-a)
> 
> So, what did you think of this entirely original chapter? Is it filler? Yes. Was it important to me to work in something completely new? Absolutely. It's safe to stick to the show, but we're going to branch more and more away from it, and I wanted to give you a bit of a preview of the kind of thing I can do without the show to guide me. 
> 
> If anyone thinks I'm being a bit unfair to some characters...well...that's actually entirely on purpose. 
> 
> So please, let me know what you think of this chapter! If you were ever going to drop a single review, this is the chapter to do it. I've been struggling with the end of this story for a while now, and could really use some discussion or thoughts on what's going on with the characters. 
> 
> All my socials:  
> [Tumblr](https://storiesbeyondthestars.tumblr.com/) |[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storiesbeyondthestars/) |[Stellar Sierras Instragram ](https://www.instagram.com/stellarsierras/) |[Twitter](https://twitter.com/storiesbeyond1)
> 
> Story betaed by: [Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon/pseuds/Silvamoon)
> 
> We'll see you next month for the next chapter, and it's going to be a super fun one!


	13. Crystal Venom

Lance groaned as he slumped on the ground, his hair stuck to his face beneath his helmet thanks to the sweat that he couldn’t wipe away. It was completely gross, and made all the experimenting he had been doing with different Altean products moot. He just figured out a combination that didn't take a really long time and made him feel ready to go for the rest of the day.

He didn’t like being the last one there for meetings. He didn’t know which reaction was worse. The disappointed looks from Shiro and Coran, the rolling eyes and unsurprised attitude of Hunk and Pidge, or the sheer annoyance that came from Allura and Keith. Lance didn’t want to stop his skincare and self-care routines, because he needed them now more than ever. It wasn’t like he could just go out on a whim to have fun or anything, and now it wasn’t just tests and peer pressure. This was a war.

Well, no, it wasn’t yet. This was more like a rising rebellion to start a war. The point still stood though. Lance needed these small things to make him happy, and he figured out how to make them work while avoiding the annoyed looks, so he was a bit annoyed that his efforts were all for nothing now.

It would have been one thing if they were actually fighting an enemy. It was something else when they were training. Not just the normal training that they already established, but drills over and over again. Running with their weapons (even if they could vanish and appear in a split second), sparring, target practice, flying and attacking in their lions, and so much more. They’d been at it all morning, and Lance was honestly ready to throw down his blaster and drop.

At the Garrison, he’d been training as a sniper, because his baby-blues had  _ perfect _ vision, thank you very much, and he actually could just hunker down somewhere and stay still for a long period of time if he had a goal in mind. It was one of those things that he liked to think he was actually good at. There was no clear goal here. Sure, at first Lance focused on the targets, but now it was getting so redundant. Seriously, Shiro had been oddly intense since they left Bataria. He didn’t say what happened to him there, nor what he saw in his brief glimpse of the future. Lance was willing to bet his Mamá’s garlic knots that at least one of those things prompted this train-a-thon.

“Shiro,” Keith spoke up, his voice oddly strained. “We’ve been at this for  _ hours _ now.” Okay, if  _ Keith, _ Mr. I-train-for-shits-and-giggles was tired and thought this was too much, Lance didn’t feel bad about the urge to complain.

Shiro fixated on him with a stern expression. “You might not get breaks in combat situations.”

“That’s true,” Keith replied quickly before any of the others could complain, because Pidge looked like she was ready to rip Shiro a new one right now. Hunk looked like he would cry if they had to keep going. “But weren’t  _ you _ the one that always told me it was better to ease my way into a situation?”

Lance almost snorted. There was absolutely no way he listened to that advice. He was going to keep his mouth shut for right now though. Keith was on their side and he didn’t want to accidentally, suddenly flip that around. His loyalty to Shiro ran deep, and it was rare for him to contradict or question him this way.

Shiro’s face did a hilarious thing, like he didn’t know how to answer that properly. That seemed to spur Pidge on. “When Allura did this  _ exact _ thing to us you were the one to stop it.”

Forget Keith, Pidge was apparently the thing they needed to get through to him. Bless her smallness. Shiro’s expression softened, and he sighed. “Well, Coran did ask us to meet him down on the detainment level.”

It was like all of the exhaustion left Pidge’s body. “Yeah we think we figured out how to get at Sendak’s memories without letting him out!”

Lance shivered at the name of the Galra. Though outnumbered, Lance had little doubt that letting Sendak escape into the castle would only lead to something bad happening. That said, it still sucked that they were able to escape training, only to have to go do more stuff. Would it kill Shiro to give them a little bit of down time? Oh well, it was still better than waving his blaster around for a few more hours.

Hopefully he’d have enough time to have a quick shower first.

…

Allura sat in a field of juniberry flowers, running her fingers along the petals of the plants. She found herself there more and more lately, taking comfort in her father’s calm, steady presence. It was like he was really there with her.

The hologram was realistic enough to allow her to pick one of the flowers, and if she concentrated hard enough, it was almost like she could feel the soft petals. She held it to her nose, disappointed but not at all surprised when she inhaled nothing but the recycled air of the castle. “I loved the smell of the mountain juniberries in the early morning breeze.” She could picture it if she closed her eyes, but why would she? While she was in this room, she could see Altea much more clearly.

“As did I,” her father agreed with her as he knelt next to her.

“Remember the summer berry festival?” she asked suddenly, almost desperately. “People would come from all over Altea for the harvest.” Allura could still see it. She could picture the sea of colourful hair as people bought jams and jellies made from the juniberries that came after the blossoms.

The Paladins’ hair was all so dull-coloured in comparison. They were so similar to her that sometimes she forgot they weren’t the same (hideous ears aside), but there was no such thing as an Altean with brown or black hair (though some colours came close since they were so dark). They weren’t Alteans, and though she cared for them, they would never be Alteans.

“I remember how the berry juice stained your favorite dress,” her father pulled her out of her thoughts. “You were so upset."

Allura laughed, surprised by the sudden memory. She’d been so young, a mere 30 years old, and had on her favourite, sparkly dress that her Nan-Nan had gifted her. While taking a drink, she missed her mouth and poured it all over her. It was one of her earliest memories.

“It took forever for Mother to calm me,” she acknowledged. Though she didn’t particularly remember that part, it was a story that Coran told her time and time again.

“Did you know that I met your mother at the berry festival?” her father said to her almost wistfully. “I knew Coran, and he knew her and introduced us. She was the Princess, so of course I was in awe. I found a blossom that had yet to fall, and gave it to her.”

She sighed, the dreamy image passing over her mind. That was a story Allura heard many times before from many different points of view. It was what she always pictured for herself in a strange way. Juniberries were her favourite flowers, not just because of their beauty and smell, and not just because of their fleeting, seasonal rarity. They represented the beginning of her parents’ relationship, and she always wanted to meet her future spouse in the same way.

There were no juniberries anymore. Not that she could even see a future where she found someone she wanted to be with. That just wasn’t in the cards for her anymore.

When she was young, Allura planned a grand wedding with a son of one of the many lords and ladies that governed different regions of Altea under her father’s rule. Though she’d always known that she’d have to marry as the Queen of Altea, an heir was very important, she still wanted that experience for herself. Her most selfish desires from her childhood were wanting to fall in love with her perfect prince, and to be a paladin.

Her smile fell, and she looked down at her flowers around her. “I miss Altea so much.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I miss you, Father. I wish—I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” She choked back a sob that threatened to escape.

“I know, Allura,” her father said, as if to reassure her. The hologram placed a hand on her shoulder, and she allowed herself to think that she could actually feel his warmth for a moment. “As leaders, we have to do what’s right for our people, even if it means great sacrifice.”

Ire rushed through her, and she almost demanded to know what people he was talking about. What great sacrifice had  _ he _ made to  _ save  _ their people? Why weren’t more of their subjects put into the sleeping chamber with her? Now all of the Alteans were dead and gone.

Was sacrificing all Alteans some sort of power play? If so, she couldn’t see what the endgame was.

Despite this, Allura held her anger in. She didn’t want to be bitter around her father. These moments were all she had left and she wanted to cherish them, cherish the wonderful man that she would always remember. “I know. It is the Altean way.”

It had become a predictable pattern for her time with her father to be interrupted by the mechanical whooshing of the door, reminding Allura again that this wasn’t real, and it never would be. She looked over at Coran, who approached, framed by the interior of the castle beyond the door. A different bitterness rose up within her. Couldn’t he just leave her be?

“Princess, you should be resting,” Coran insisted. “You’re much better than before, but you know as well as I do that things can become unpredictable with quintessence.”

“This is true,” her father agreed with Coran. “There were many documented cases of those who expended their own quintessence too much, or meddled with it, to the point where they became unpredictably sick. It would come in waves where they would be fine, and then pass out. Quite dreadful.”

That had happened to Allura at first. She was in and out without any sort of warning. Luckily, her quintessence was slowly, naturally replacing itself and stabilizing. She shuddered to think of what would happen to someone whose quintessence became permanently unstable. Now she had moments of tiredness, but she was almost better.

Now that she thought about it, she was a bit tired, and really, she’d rather not pass out in this room, because though it looked like the juniberry fields of Altea, it was simply a blank, metal room and would be quite uncomfortable. So she acquested Coran’s request, standing up on her own before looking to her father, “I love you, father. I’ll see you soon.”

“Get your rest, darling,” Alfor replied warmly, his smile meeting his blue eyes. “I will be here for you when you need me.”

She smiled at that, and looped her arm through Coran’s extended one as they exited the memory chamber and headed towards her rooms. “Coran, why did mother not choose to leave her memories behind like father did? I would have loved to talk to her.”

Coran sighed. “Your father tried to persuade her to do so, but your mother was quite against it. You were so very young, and she didn’t want to confuse you about why she was there, but couldn’t properly hold you or be with you.” He hesitated, clearly having more to say.

“Yes?” Allura prompted. Though she had memories of her mother, they were quite faint.

“She thought it was cruel,” he said softly. “To tease someone being there when they’re gone. I didn’t entirely agree, but I respected her thoughts.”

Allura thought about that, heart constricting. She could absolutely understand where that sentiment came from. It was, in a sense, cruel. Every time she went into the memory chamber, she missed Altea and her father more and more. It left her with the ability to actually remember what her father sounded like. She could still see his smile and not struggle in her recollection. If there was one bad thing about living as long as Alteans did, it was that memories faded over time.

Instead of voicing all of that, she asked, “Where are the Paladins?”

“Oh, Shiro has been putting them through their paces all day! They’ll be meeting me down in the detainment room soon to test our theory on getting at Sendak’s memories.”

Ah yes, that was right. Coran and Pidge together finally figured out a way to deal with him. A part of Allura wanted to be there, but she was so tired, and would be a liability if something went wrong.

Instead, after Coran left her alone in her room, she stroked the fur of her mice and muttered, “You’ll be my eyes and ears today, won’t you?” They squeaked in agreement and hurried on their way to find everyone else.

…

Bless Lance and his insistence on having another shower. It gave Pidge some time to head down to her lab to check through some of the files that they came across in the Galra computers on the Balmera. There was so much data that it took her a while to get through, given how busy they were. Any bit of information was helpful though, especially if something could give her a clue about her father and brother.

She spun around in her floating chair as she waited for the most recent information, her eyes falling onto the Galra crystal that they had moved into her lab, because it was, in fact, hers now. Coran configured everything to her tastes, and she had the full run of the place. Likewise, Hunk had his own lab right across the hall where he liked to go and tinker with different things. Less coding, more just purely building for fun. She completely understood that.

Pidge was more interested in data, coding, and everything else. Science was absolutely fascinating, and she was very eager to study this crystal. It seemed to work similarly to the Balmeran ones, but it was still so different. The fact that the light it generated was a different colour was already a telltale sign of that. At the very least, it meant that the light was moving on a shorter wavelength, though she had yet to discover why. It also appeared more unstable, and seemed to be draining or dying like an old battery. It wasn’t like quintessence, which she already knew could replenish itself (unless in certain, extreme situations, whatever those might be). If she could discover how the Galra actually powered everything, there was a good chance they could use it against them somehow.

“Pidge,” Coran’s voice came over the intercom, “please come down to the detainment room.”

At the same moment, her computer finished going through the information that she was waiting for. A groan of annoyance escaped her lips, because of  _ course _ Coran would need her right then and there.

She pushed herself off the chair and headed down towards the detainment room, which was really more of a long hallway that led to more hallways they weren’t allowed in for whatever reason. Maybe Coran thought they were idiots that would get stuck in one of the holding pods or something.

Alteans certainly had a way of detaining dangerous criminals. They didn’t leave them in a cell, nor did they torture them. They put them in stasis much like Allura and Coran had been, and that was where Sendak currently was.

Despite his closed eyes and his still form, he was incredibly intimidating by size alone. Now that she was out of the situation, Pidge couldn’t believe everything that she’d done that day. How she taunted this creature that was clearly an apex predator was beyond her now.

The fact that she’d do it again without hesitation was also a little bit mind boggling.

Shiro was tense. He watched with careful eyes as Coran placed her device onto Sendak’s pod. He was too tense. She noticed earlier that he seemed on edge.

It was kind of hard to believe that all happened before the nonsense on the Balmera, Bataria, and the smaller non-important skirmishes on other planets. They had this creepshow shoved in the freezer until they could figure out what to do with him without putting them all in danger.

The last thing they wanted was for their life support systems to go down because Sendak screwed with it, though Coran assured her that they were the most secure systems in the castle to the point where it kind of sounded like Allura, and Allura alone, could change them. Not that the Princess could really do much now while she was still recovering.

“Okay guys,” Coran said as he finished up, “Sendak’s all hooked up, but I must warn you, this technology was used to keep Altean memories alive, not to interrogate prisoners. It might not work based on his species alone.” Pidge nodded in agreement, because this was something they had gone over. Galra tech was easier to deal with than Altean tech, but she tried her best and was determined to learn more. This memory stuff was a little more complex than figuring out how to charge her laptop though.

“We understand this isn’t what the technology was for,” Shiro assured him, “but if we can access Sendak’s memories, we may gain valuable intelligence on Zarkon’s troops’ locations. From what I heard, he was Zarkon’s second in command.”

“Yeah,” Lance added. “We can just be like, 'Knock-knock.' 'Who's there?' 'The avenging fury of Voltron, son!'" He motioned wildly as he spoke.

Pidge snorted at his ridiculousness before turning her attention back to Coran, “We’re attempting to have more than one copy of his memory created, just in case, right?”

“That’s right.” Coran nodded at her. “As the memories are extracted, they're written bit by bit on individual molecules of the micro-storage strands."

Pidge was about to ask for more details on that, since it was truly a fascinating concept, but Lance interrupted again. "When I go, I want all the stuff in my brain stored in a giant ship." He sighed wistfully, hands in his pockets. She glared at him for the interruption.

Keith, Pidge had noted, had a habit of mirroring Shiro’s mood. If Shiro was cranky, he tended to be too. Apparently annoyed with Lance butting in, he crossed his arms and said, “The amount of information in your brain could be stored in a paper airplane." Pidge snorted, and his eyes darted towards her briefly.

“Oh yeah?” Lance instantly snapped back. “Well, the amount of information you have, Keith, could be…” He made a struggling noise that had Pidge snickering slightly.

“Yeah?” Keith prompted, facing him with a scowl.

“Uh…it’s less than what I have!” Pidge had to give Lance credit, he didn’t at all waver in his lame comeback. He kept his shoulders straight and proud like he was the single most clever person in the room before he looked at Hunk.

Behind Lance’s back, Hunk had slapped his forehead, but then straightened up and threw his arm around his friend’s shoulder. “Good one!” Lance smiled brightly at that and Keith rolled his eyes as he looked back towards Sendak.

“Hey Coran,” Pidge said as she once again decided to ignore the ridiculousness of the others, “this is how you incorporated King Alfor’s memories in the Castle of Lions, right?” She was honestly very curious about meeting the AI, but they all agreed to respect Allura’s decision to keep him to herself for now. “Does that mean that he’s going to end up meeting Sendak or something?”

“It is how the memories were incorporated, but our failsafe plans should keep Sendak’s memories confined here and on the copy that you’ll keep separate.” He looked around at everyone. “Ready?”

“Do it,” Shiro ordered sternly.

Coran reached out and pressed the button, and Pidge held her breath in anticipation to see how this would work. She could see everyone else tensing out of the corner of her eye as they wanted for something to happen.

Except, nothing did. Everything was completely silent and motionless. They all waited for a few moments before Hunk whispered, “Uh, is this what’s supposed to happen?” Despite the fact that he whispered it, it still sounded so loud in the heavy silence. She looked back at him and shook her head.

“Let’s give it some time,” Shiro said, his gaze completely unwavering.

So that’s exactly what they did. They all buckled down and waited. Pidge was fascinated by the machinery because she could see from the lights and sounds that it was doing  _ something _ . Just nothing that they could see.

Pidge let her thoughts wander, postulating what could be happening, but as time ticked by, she began to grow antsy. Whatever was happening was taking its dear sweet time, and surely there were other ways to get the information that they wanted? Or at least information that could help them? She kind of hated just waiting around and thinking of the ‘what ifs’ when she could be  _ doing _ something. Every minute mattered.

For what it was worth, while Shiro and Coran stayed fairly focused on Sendak, the boys were all very clearly antsy by this point. Now that she thought about it, that made sense. None of them were the type to sit still and just focus. All of them were the people that wanted to do something. Lance couldn’t stay still for the life of him, Hunk always had to tinker, and Keith was very much an action kind of guy.

So she wasn’t at all surprised when Keith pushed off the wall he’d been leaning against. "Well, I can't wait around anymore. I'm gonna to hit the training deck."

“We just got done training,” Lance pointed out to him, almost scandalized.

Keith shrugged and walked away without another word. On one hand, Pidge was horrified by the idea of wanting to train after the paces Shiro put them through earlier, but on the other, she got it. It was much more enjoyable doing something on your own terms. Class science experiments, for instance. She didn’t particularly enjoy them in class, but she loved doing that kind of stuff outside of it.

She thought on that a little more before checking the time. Yeah, no, that was enough of a waste of time for now. "Okay, if anyone needs me, I'll be in the lab. Maybe I can pull some information from Sendak's Galra Crystal." She didn’t get a response from anyone else, but that was okay.

Pidge would much rather be doing something else than just sitting around.

…

Lance laid on the floor, feet extended up above his head against the wall as he stretched. This was so, so boring, but he had to admit, he was super curious about what kind of information they could possibly glean from Sendak’s brain.

He sometimes swore that he felt the skin on his back heating up, and Lance was honestly kind of bitter about it. So yeah, he’d love to pick at the brain of the asshole that did that. Though he was getting awfully bored. They worked hard enough today, and Pidge and Keith took off a while ago (the quitters), so surely it wouldn’t matter if he left for a little R&R time, right?

Hunk’s stomach suddenly let out a massive gurgle, causing him to flush and put his hands over it. He laughed and then said, “I'm going to go make some lunch. Supper. Lupper? Or is it Sunch? Whatever, I’m making it.” He was quick to slink away after that.

After checking to make sure that everything was working correctly (just slowly), Coran said, "Well, I'm afraid I can't wait here any longer, either. I have a million duties to attend to. The tech in the castle can slowly repair itself for the most part, but there are some things that are faster to do manually, you know? Between that Galra crystal infecting our system, the Balmeran rejuvenation ceremony, the fights and so much traveling after sitting still for 5,000 years, the old Castle of Lions has taken quite a beating. Best to check the systems and clean them up myself.”

“I’ll stay here,” Shiro assured him immediately with an intensity that didn’t surprise Lance anymore after everything else that day. “Somewhere in Sendak's mind is the information about Zarkon that we need."

Lance frowned at that as he flipped over. Why did he get the feeling that whatever Shiro saw in his little glimpse of the future had to do with Zarkon, and whatever he saw wasn’t a good thing.

His eyes darted between Shiro and Coran, and he didn’t at all want anything to do with what either one of these men were planning on doing. He was  _ tired _ .

“Okay, well, while you guys do that, I think I'm gonna get my chill on. Maybe kick back with a lemonade or space juice. Something." Lance tried to slink away as he realized that he said the absolute wrong thing. Keith left to train. Pidge left to do more research. Hunk left to make food for them all.

Coran was too quick for him though, grabbing a hold of his jacket. "Oh, hold on there, space juice. You're going to come and help me."

Play dumb Lance. Maybe they’ll let you go. It works with your Papá plenty. “What? Why? Why me?"

Ah, right. Not everyone was as gullible as his father. Coran wasn’t having any of that. "Because you're the last one here, and because your activity isn't very important."

Okay, that wasn’t at all true. Just because it didn’t benefit the mission as a whole didn’t mean that it wasn’t important. Mental stability was very important, thank you very much. Luis’ wife, Lisa, was a counsellor and took it all very seriously. It was important to have a bit of me-time. Still, he didn’t want to argue too much right now. "Wait, did I say 'chill with a good lemonade'? I meant I gotta do homework." Wait, shit, no. They didn’t have homework. He was normally  _ excellent _ at improv, so why did his brain betray him by making him think of  _ homework _ like he was in the Garrison?

Coran actually snorted at him. The nerve. “No, too late.” Lance groaned loudly, but started to trail after Coran anyway. Did he want to help out? No. Would he? Yes, he would. He was awesome like that.

“Fine.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Let us know if anything happens, okay?” Lance paused when Shiro didn’t answer, glare seemingly transfixed on Sendak’s face. It was a little bit alarming, to be honest. It made him worry about their leader. He really needed downtime as much, if not more, than the rest of them. “Shiro?”

Shiro started, and looked towards Lance with wide eyes as if he forgot that he was there. “You got it,” he stuttered out. Lance frowned, but decided not to push the matter, instead following Coran.

Before he left the room, he cast a quick look back to see Shiro glaring at Sendak again. For a brief second, he thought he saw a flicker, but when nothing else happened, he realized that it was probably a trick of the light.

…

Altean kitchens were incredibly confusing and complex. Hunk supposed that he could run back to his room to get his helmet in order to translate everything, but that was so far away and completely exhausting.

Not to mention Alteans clearly had really weird dietary needs. They were definitely omnivores, judging from the things Coran and Allura were willing to try, but they seemed extremely content with their food goo. The fact that the castle could replenish it with seemingly endless ease was both a good reason why Hunk could see it as emergency rations, and why it freaked him out a little bit. Sure, it might be efficient to get the nutrients they needed, but at what cost? Hunk genuinely enjoyed eating. He liked sinking his teeth into something with a satisfying taste and texture. Even more so, he enjoyed making things for others.

Also Hunk was pretty sure that Alteans and humans had different nutrition needs. He was glad that it was just two species they had to consider. It could have been a disaster if they had to consider the diet of a Balmeran or a Galra or something.

Hunk didn’t want to settle for space goo though. An entire universe of new ingredients and discoveries were open to them now, and he wanted to embrace it all. It wasn’t just about replicating things from Earth (he really hoped that they didn’t run into something too similar to grapefruit though or he’d puff up like a pufferfish). He wanted to figure out entirely new things to show his family when he got back home.

That thought gave him pause, and Hunk looked down at the counter, fingers curling around the plate in his hand. He wondered what his parents were doing. If Sam was doing okay with her kids despite the separation. If Aleki still helped his father with motors. If Eli was doing well in school. If Talia got into another fight.

He thought back to the sparkling egg he left bundled up in the protective, warm hatchery that Pidge helped him set up when they got back from Bataria. He knew some little turtle-like species would hatch from it eventually. Turtles made him think of Eli and Talia, because the summer before they tried to sneak a turtle into the house and argue fiercely with his parents over it. They didn’t keep that poor turtle, returning it to the wild, but maybe he’d be able to share his alien-turtle with them if they ever managed to get back home. He’d have to give it a good name or they’d never let him live it down.

“You got an alien turtle and you named it Doug?” he could almost  _ hear _ Talia sneering at him in disgust. It made him smile a little bit, but it also made him sad.

Hunk sniffled a bit, and turned his attention back to the task at hand, not wanting to get lost in his thoughts and needing to just do something. It was why he couldn’t just stand around watching Sendak (which was really freaky as it was anyway).

Quickly, Hunk realized a problem. He only wanted to cook things that his mother would make, except they didn’t have anything like that right now. So for now, he settled on food goo. Hopefully its blandness would help him come up with an idea.

“Come on,” he muttered to himself as he grabbed one of the dispensers. Apparently there used to be a way to make multiple kinds of food goo, but all they had was the basic goo now. Maybe he’d try to find a way to add more flavour to it when they needed it. “Who knows, maybe we’ll even get a little crème goo-lée." He snorted at himself. If Lance were here, he would have groaned loudly in annoyance.

For as big of a goofball as he was, Lance hated puns.

He tried to put some goo on the plate, but it didn’t come out. Frowning, Hunk tried a few more times before unthinkingly bringing the hose up to his eyes to peer inside, just in case there was a blockage of some sort. Almost immediately, the goo exploded into his face.

“Ow! Ow my eye!” Hunk flailed as he threw the dispenser, but instead of turning off, the force of the goo flying out sent it spiralling around a flailing snake, coating the room in goo. It was a disaster.

So naturally, of course someone had to wander by and see his disaster just as he dived behind the counter.

Pidge poked her head into the room and called out, “What the heck, Hunk?”

“The goo has me pinned down!” he called back, and the next thing he knew, Pidge was hurling herself over the countertop to crouch beside him. She already had blotches of green goo staining the white part of her shirt. “What are you doing? You could have escaped!”

“And leave someone behind in this mess?” Pidge shook her head as she took her glasses off and tucked them into a pocket. “What’s happening?”

“I dunno, it just went bonkers.” The machine was  _ still _ flailing and shooting goo everywhere. “We gotta turn it off.”

Pidge looked around and pointed up at the plates that Hunk had left on the counter. He reached up and grabbed them, handing one to her.

“We’ll flank the goo to shut it down,” she decided, and honestly it was better than any idea he had, so Hunk nodded his head and saluted her.

They rushed out, using their plates and shields to protect their faces. Pidge jumped on top of the hose, trying to keep it in one spot, which allowed Hunk to grab it and tie the hose into a knot.

Pidge got off of it as they watched the food goo back up in the dispenser, little sparks flying out of the parts on the wall as green goo leaked out.

Silence overtook the kitchen, and they both looked up as the lights flickered off for a moment. It was only for a split second, but given that they were in space, it was pitch black. They came back on as quickly as they shut off, but it was still unsettling, and Hunk really didn’t want to be in the room anymore.

Pidge glanced over at him. “Probably a malfunction?”

“Yeah. Coran said he was fixing some systems,” Hunk looked at the mess despairingly. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with it at the moment. His shoulders straightened and he asked, “Hey, would that have messed with the incubator in my room?”

Pidge frowned. “Probably not, but we should go check just in case.” She looked at the kitchen and stared at it sheepishly. “Leave it for Coran?”

Was it the right thing to do? No, absolutely not. That said, Hunk wanted to check on the egg because he’d feel awful if something happened to it. So he followed Pidge down the hall, sprinting away from the kitchen and towards his room.

They’d make it up to Coran somehow.

…

Lance glared at the healing pod in front of him. It looked sparkling clean to him, but no, to Coran it was still filthy. He was pretty sure that Altean eyes could see things in different ways than humans. That or he was making it up. “This stupid castle can literally rebuild itself, and these pods can heal someone from near death, but they don’t have the ability to clean themselves?”

Coran laughed heartily from his own pod. “Self-cleaning pods. Now that’s a good one.”

Yeah, Coran was totally bullshitting him, and Lance knew it. They had self-cleaning stuff back on Earth, let alone a super advanced alien spaceship.

“I thought you were supposed to be resetting stuff,” Lance pointed out, but the alien ignored him, whistling a merry tune. He sighed and went back to scrubbing the shining surface.

“You know,” Coran spoke up a few moments later, “this kind of reminds me of my time as a young cadet. I had just enlisted in the Altean space squad, aeronautics sub-tech nano-weaponry unit, and I was sent off to boot camp. Our sergeant had us cleaning cryo-pods day and night. I got so good at it, I earned my first set of stripes!"

Lance had absolutely no idea what aeronautic sub-tech nano-weaponry was, but it sounded  _ tiny _ and kind of awesome. He stood up to stretch out his aching back (he might be young and flexible but staying in one spot for a long time  _ hurt _ ), leaning against the pod. Unfortunately, he leaned a little too far and stumbled backwards into the pod. He grumbled at his own clumsiness, and went to get out, when the pod slid shut, trapping him inside.

“Uhh.” Lance looked around, sure that something like this would have an emergency escape button. Of course, he didn’t have his helmet on, so he couldn’t see what some of the buttons said. He took a deep breath and yelled out, “Hey, Coran!” He couldn’t hear anything from outside of the pod, and a spike of fear went through Lance when he realized that either it was completely soundproof, or it was muffled just enough that Coran couldn’t hear him over the babbling he was clearly doing.

That was fine though. He’d just chill there until Coran turned around and saw him. Lance groaned when he realized that he’d probably get some kind of lecture about wanting to sleep on the job or something. Which actually sounded nice at this point, and was only tempting because everyone on this ship was crazy and didn’t understand the importance of me-time.

He hugged himself to ward off the cold as he waited, huffing slightly as he leaned against the clear frame. Good god Coran could babble on with the best of them. He’d probably give Rachel a run for her money.

Then the pod jerked, and started to lower. Lance lashed out and started pounding the glass (was it glass?) of the pod as it descended. It started to descend in slow motion, giving Lance enough time to see that Coran was not about to turn around. He tried to get his attention, but it was too late. The pod went down into the small, black compartment in the castleship. If it weren’t for the faint, cyan lights within the pod, he would have been trapped in pitch-black darkness.

Lance breathed heavily as his hands searched the cool surface, realizing that it was getting colder. He knew that he was cold when he came out of the healing pods, and Coran once explained that they could be safely lowered with people in them in case they needed to be healed and hidden at the same time, but he wasn’t unconscious right now. He wasn’t healing. He was just trapped in this tiny, dark, cramped space.

“Let me out,” Lance muttered quietly at first as his heart began to race, fingers practically clawing at the smooth surface. “Let me out!”

_ “Let me out!” 6-year-old Lance yelled as he pounded at the door to the cellar Marco and his cousins pushed him into. It was dark and cold, and he could hear something moving down there. “Let me out!” _

…

When Keith was really young, his father tried to get him into martial arts, figuring that it would be a good fit for a little boy with as much energy to burn off as he had. He was right, but even more than that, little Keith found himself lingering around the rec center when he waited for his Pa under the watchful eyes of the workers who all knew who he was. He found himself fascinated by the sheer strength and fluidity he saw from the ballerinas training there. Somehow it ended up with him entering years of ballet.

A few people scoffed at that, and then would tut and say that of course he was a dancer, he was gay, after all. Those people could go screw themselves, because those two things were completely independent of one another. Like, there was a reason it was a trope that assassins could pose as ballerinas or trained in other forms of dance. It only made him better at fencing. It made him better at self-defense and fighting.

He slashed at the training droid with his bayard before spinning out of the way and then using his momentum to come around and attack from a different angle. Always moving, and never leaving an easy, open target.

The others probably thought that he was crazy, wanting to come back and train. Reality was, Keith  _ was _ tired and hungry, and he would love to just crawl into some warm corner to take a nap. He was just so antsy at the moment.

Keith wasn’t sure if there was just something wrong with him, or if it was his apparent alien origin that gave him so much extra energy. He hated to sit still, and waiting around for Sendak’s memories, while important, was agonizing. He wanted to actually  _ do _ something.

It didn’t at all help that Shiro was acting so weird. Keith didn’t know what was wrong with his brother, but he didn’t at all like it. He wasn’t very up-front about what happened to him on Bataria, and he flat-out refused to talk about whatever he had seen in his brief flash-forward. It bothered Keith, because it was clearly still bothering Shiro. He wasn’t normally one to push them so much, but his judgement was a little bit off that day.

Keith grunted as he managed to slash his rapier-like sword through the plating on the Gladiator (as they called their training droids), causing it to split into two and fall to the ground in a heap. He used his glove to wipe the sweat away from his head. It was a good workout, but he’d done this one a few times now and was pretty sure that he could take the next one, so he decided to give it a shot. “Start training level three.”

A fresh training droid fell from the ceiling to land in front of him. Keith barely got the chance to ground himself properly before it was rushing at him with its staff. This one was much faster than the last to the point where the difference between the two was ridiculous.

Keith ducked, dodged, and parried the blows from the Gladiator, and maybe he was just a bit too tired, but it kept coming at him again and again, barely giving him a moment to think. This was actually the kind of environment he generally thrived in, where he just acted. The problem was that the rest of the day was catching up to him, and he had also very stupidly not worn any of his armour.

He figured at the beginning of this that he wouldn’t always have it, so it was good to practice situations where had to carry around his bayard, no fancy appearing and disappearing within the armour. Yeah, it was a bit stupid in retrospect, but Keith wasn’t a complete idiot. He  _ didn’t _ want to end up beaten and bruised, in too much pain to help when a real emergency came up.

“End training sequence,” he said clearly. He expected everything to shut down immediately like it normally did, but all the Gladiator did was spark for a moment before rushing at him again, it’s staff suddenly shifting into something much sharper.

Keith gasped and dodged out of the way, the blade just missed his side. Unfortunately, he didn’t miss the foot that followed, and ended up rolling across the floor from the powerful kick as his bayard slid across the floor away from him. He gasped in pain, and yelled, “End training sequence!”

Again, nothing happened. The Gladiator rushed towards him, and Keith gritted his teeth, launching himself off of the ground and over the robot. He rolled and grabbed his bayard before rushing to the door, because something was clearly wrong. This third level robot was malfunctioning or  _ something _ , because he was pretty sure that level three wasn’t supposed to be the no-safety, murder bot one.

He breathed heavily as he left the training room, leaning against the solid, steel door. A loud scraping sound was the only warning he got before the Gladiator’s sword came through the door, a millimeter away from his hair. Keith bolted away from the door, stopping when he was a few feet away. He knew that the robots were programmed to deactivate if they left the training room, so all he had to do was wait for it to fall to pieces.

That didn’t happen. Instead, it ran towards him, weapon in hand.

…

Shiro stared unwavering at Sendak’s form in the detainment room. He knew that he should go and get something to eat, or at least take off his armour, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t do that after hearing Zarkon’s whispers in his ears, after seeing the other Paladins dead on the ground.

Yes, Shiro’s logical mind knew that what he saw in that cave was the magic playing on his fears, but it still hit something deep within him. He only had so much time to prepare the others, to get rid of as much of this mess as possible before he couldn’t anymore. Shiro always wanted to make something of himself with the limited time he had, and being a Paladin was the best way to make that a reality. 

That meant that they needed real information, not just the bits and pieces they got from small, old bases, or from the locals on different planets. Sendak was said to be Zarkon’s second in command (though Shiro remembered some debate, because it was said that no one had Zarkon’s ear quite like the Witch did).

The thing was though, Sendak was entrusted with the Red Lion. The right hand of Voltron. That wouldn’t go to just anyone in the Galra Army. Sendak was definitely high in the chain of command, and he knew something. Probably more than just ‘something’.

The problem was getting the answers.

Shiro stared at the Galra’s face, vaguely able to picture him at a few of the matches in the Galra’s arena. The thought made his hand curl into a fist. "I know you're in there, Sendak. I know you have all the answers. Give them to me."

Nothing happened, and he slammed his hand against the clear substance that separated the two of them. "You're a broken soldier! You can't hold out forever!" Though he knew that wasn’t entirely true. Some of the most dedicated truly could. It was just rare. He didn’t know where Sendak would fall between those things.

A bright glow suddenly appeared In the storage system. It took Shiro a moment to realize what it was, but when he did, a smirk rose up on his lips. “So, you  _ can _ hear me.”

He could work with this.

….

Ever since he was little, his mother always joked that Lance had come from the ocean. She would tickle his feet as he tried to squirm away, saying that she was sure he was part mermaid, to which his father would joke about things he didn’t quite understand then, but did now (mainly, suggesting his mother had an affair with a merman). He loved being beneath the water, and could hold his breath for a near record breaking amount of time (he was determined to break that record one day). He didn’t mind the pressure of the water all around him. It almost felt freeing really.

Being in a dark, cold, enclosed space and being unable to escape was something else entirely. Lance didn’t think he was completely claustrophobic, he was usually fine when he entered places willingly and knew what was going on and how to get out, but this was something else altogether.

He pressed his head against the door and squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to think about his situation though that was impossible. No one knew where he was or what happened. He was trapped in a dark, cold, cramped spot.

Lance had no idea how long he was down there when the pod jerked again, and he reeled back from the entrance, pulse pounding in his ears. Was it going to go further down? Or just drop him? He didn’t even know how deep these shafts went.

He almost cried when he realized that it was going  _ up _ and not down. The light made him grimace, but he was so, so relieved to just be getting out of there. Coran was standing outside of the pod, and appeared terribly startled. He pressed some buttons, and there was a hiss as the barrier between him and freedom vanished.

Lance stumbled out of the pod, his body aching and stiff from the cold as he hugged his jacket around himself. “This stupid pot just shut on me and locked me in while you were rambling about boot camp!” Now that he was safe, Lance was honestly kind of furious that Coran hadn’t noticed he was gone.

“I thought you left to goof around. Are you sure you didn’t just trip and fall in?” Coran asked him skeptically. “No judgment. It happens.”

Lance spluttered. “What? No!” Okay, yes, he  _ had _ tripped into it, but there was no reason it should have done what it did, right?”

“Huh, how did you get it to lock and start the cryogenic freezing process?” Coran looked genuinely perplexed. “These pods aren’t even set up to do that unless purposely programmed to do so, usually to save a life if resources are at a minimum. It’s not like the Sleep Chamber.”

Lance refrained from pointing out that the detainment unit, the sleeping chambers, and this place all looked super similar and all seemed to have the same technology, which was a bit disconcerting but not what he needed to focus on. “It tried to kill me!” He wasn’t asleep in there, so it’s likely that he could have been killed from the cold if Coran hadn’t found him. Cryogenics were different then just freezing someone. Well, maybe Alteans had some kind of magic going on, he didn’t know and didn’t want to find out.

“Don’t get your boots in a bunch.” Coran waved his hand dismissively. “My guess is they’re malfunctioning. I have the systems going through auto repairs, though I wasn’t expecting it to happen with the pods…”

“Okay, I’m going to float this out there,” Lance said to him seriously, an idea coming to mind very suddenly. “I think this castle is haunted." It made sense. The castle was super old, and saw a lot of tragedy in the past. Those were key factors for ghosts. His Abuela swore that they were real, and he absolutely believed her. His Mamá said that she saw the one that used to haunt her childhood home.

Sure, things  _ could _ be going wrong with the castle, but he couldn’t shake off the chill that it was haunted now. How could it not be?

Coran cleared his voice. “The ship might seem like a fantastical, magical creature to you, but it's really just a big embodiment of advanced supernatural technology that cannot be explained by science alone."

Lance stared at him blankly, not quite sure what that had to do with anything or what he was getting at. Yeah, Lance knew that it was highly advanced and he couldn’t comprehend it all, but that didn’t mean it was exempt from being haunted.

“That does make it sound a bit haunted,” Coran admitted, “but trust me, it’s not. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happened here. Though I am going to check the command deck to see if any other malfunctions were detected.”

He hugged himself to ward off the cold, and for comfort as Coran left. He heard a rumbling sound in the room, and was quick to bolt when the pod started to descend to the floor, glad that no one was there to hear the terrified squeak that left his lips.

A part of Lance knew that the sudden spike of fear was stupid. Yes, what happened with the pod was very likely a malfunction of the castle, both because of how old the castle was, and because of Sendak’s crystal. Coran warned them that some programming could be messed up, but it would be nothing serious. Lance understood this.

At the same time though, now that he thought about it, he couldn’t help but think about how  _ old _ the castle was, and how much death must have surrounded it given that it was a warship. He was a staunch believer that there was an afterlife, though he didn’t quite know what that looked like. Maybe there was a heaven and a hell, maybe it was reincarnation, maybe they woke up in an alternative universe, who knew? He didn’t. What he was sure of was that sometimes spirits or impressions were left behind, and it wouldn’t at all surprise him if they were in this castle.

It was so, so strange. This castle was so big. Bigger than any building he lived in before, including the living quarters at the Garrison. It was big, it was dark, it was largely abandoned. At the same time though, they were trapped within it. Confined to the insides of the castle with no way out on their own.

“I’m okay,” Lance muttered to himself, hugging himself tighter. “I’m good. Everything is absolutely fine. Perfectly fine. Just peachy.”

Hunk said that he was going to cook dinner, so maybe going to hang around the kitchens would be a good idea. It was bright, with now familiar noises, and another person would be there. Plus it had to be getting close to dinner time. So that was the direction Lance set out in.

As he walked, he couldn’t help but feel like there were a pair of eyes on him. Or maybe multiple pairs. So many eyes. It seriously felt like something was watching him everywhere that he went.

As he passed by another corridor, the lights flickered on and off. He laughed weakly and said, “Nopeity nope nope. We’re not doing this.” As the lights flickered again, he swore that he saw someone standing at the end of the hallway. “Nope!” He started to take off in the opposite direction, but then froze when he heard Coran calling for help.

“Coran?” Lance looked back down the hall, now completely lit again, but he didn’t see anything. He waited, straining his ears until he heard Coran’s voice call out for help again. It was one thing to rush away from a potential ghost like a smart person would, but it was another to leave somebody behind who needed help.

It was very possible that Coran saw the flickering lights too and went to check what was going on. He was basically a one-man maintenance worker (which was a bit sad when he thought about it).

“Help! Somebody!” Coran cried out, his voice a bit distorted and strange. It made fear and worry spike up within Lance. This situation stank, but he couldn’t leave him.

“Where are you?” he called out, blue eyes darting from one side of the hall to the next.

“I’m trapped in the airlock!”

Oh, oh  _ that _ was bad. It was explained to all of them that there were multiple airlocks around the ship so that they could get outside if need be, but they were so, so dangerous if you didn’t have the proper gear on. If it opened while someone was inside, there was some sort of Altean magic-thingy going on that would keep the air inside the chamber for about a minute or so, in the event that you managed to grab onto something and weren’t thrown out into the unforgiving vacuum that was space. It was still incredibly dangerous though, and anyone inside when the door opened was likely to asphyxiate.

If Coran got trapped in one while the castle was malfunctioning so badly, he could be in grave danger. Lance didn’t save him from getting blown up just for him to die via airlock.

Lance threw open the door to the airlock without question, stumbling over his own feet as he went. He skidded to a stop inside, and looked around with confusion. The small room was completely empty.

His stomach plummeted as Lance realized that this was some kind of trick. He whipped around towards the door, fingers grazing it as it closed and locked just in front of him. The alarm started to blare as a bland, almost metallic voice said, “Airlock opening in 120 ticks.”

Heart pounding, Lance tried the door, but it wouldn’t budge. He banged on the door desperately, hoping that someone in this empty, claustrophobic castle would hear him in time.

…

The light that appeared in the small tank beside Sendak’s pod was responding to Shiro’s voice. He knew it was. It would flicker when he spoke, moving closer or darting farther away. It was how he just  _ knew _ that Sendak was listening to him, that there was truly something there.

“When did you join Zarkon’s army?” Shiro demanded. Coran mentioned that he thought Sendak was alive 5,000 years ago as well, but that didn’t make sense. All their documentation listed the average lifespan of a Galra to be 800 years, and Shiro doubted their technology improved enough for them to live over six times as long. Especially since while Alteans aged slowly (ten years of development for an Altean was equivalent to about one year of human development), Galra aged similarly to humans, and then lived very, very long lives as young and middle aged adults. It was apparently only in the last 100 years of their lives that they really started to show signs of aging.

The lights remained still at that question, so he instead asked, “Where did you find the Red Lion?” Surely it was hidden as well as the others, so knowing how he tracked the stubborn lion down would be a huge benefit to them. This time, the lights did dance around a bit.

Hmm, so he wasn’t interested in personal questions. That was fine, Shiro wasn’t either. He wanted answers. He wanted to stop Zarkon before he reached the blackness of the future he saw. Before the cruel, horrible reality of any of the others dying came to pass.

“What is Zarkon's greatest weakness?" He paused, as if waiting for an answer, and was about to start questioning him again when Sendak’s deep, haunting voice seemed to encase him entirely.

“What makes you think you could possibly defeat him? Others have tried. The Alteans tried.”

Sendak’s mouth wasn’t moving. He was completely still, but Shiro was so, so sure he heard the voice. This had to be the memories talking. It was incredibly unsettling, but he had to try and get some form of information out of him. He had to.

“If you were to attack Zarkon, where would you strike?” It wasn’t true sentience, Coran explained earlier. It was more like they’d have full access to Sendak’s memories, and Shiro didn’t for a minute believe that Sendak  _ didn’t _ know how to take down Zarkon.

"Why strike at all when you can join him?" Shiro’s head snapped from the lights towards Sendak at that, flinching away when he saw those cruel, golden eyes staring at him.

…

It was really, really strange to know that you were going to die. It was that very moment that Lance realized that he didn’t want to. He looked over the rest of his too short life with disdain. What had he done with it? Absolutely nothing. He was the least impressive of his siblings by a long shot, and any of the abilities that made him special were ones they already had. He was friendly with most people at the Garrison, but Hunk was the only  _ real _ friend he’d been able to make at the time. Was he really going to die not seeing his mother again? Not being able to talk to Veronica after fighting with her?

It was really, really strange to think that one of his biggest regrets was that the last person he kissed was Jenny Shaybon. She had been beautiful with her pale skin, dark eyes, and inky black hair that framed her face in the right way, flipping out on the ends in a natural way. Lance had been so sure that he was in love with her after one date, but she ripped his heart out and stomped on it.

It was what he deserved for thinking he was good enough for someone like her, he really should have seen the breakup coming, but it still sucked. It sucked then, and he realized that when he got to think about it, not distracted by an intergalactic war, it still really sucked. It still hurt. He didn’t want to think about that when he was dying. He didn’t want to picture her dark hair or—

Keith suddenly came out of nowhere, his back slamming into the doorway. His bayard was in his hand, red jacket gone, and was that a Gladiator attacking him? What the cheese?

“Keith!” he yelled out, slamming his fists on the window.

…

Keith dodged the Gladiator’s sword, adrenaline pulsing through him as he avoided it, moving only out of sheer desperation. His muscles ached terribly, and every part of him wanted to collapse into a pile on the floor somewhere and let the Gladiator take him.

It swung at him again, drawing an almost animalistic growl from his throat as he spun out of the way and slashed in the same movement. His bayard was sharp enough to cut through pretty much any metal he’d come across so far, but this Gladiator was set at a ridiculously high training level and seemed to have some kind of extra protection (probably from whatever specific thing that training level was set for). If Keith could get a clear opening to attack the joints or any of the seams, he’d be able to take it down, that’s what his weapon was based off of. 

His was similar to a rapier but not the exact same, made for agility, precision, and rapid movements. Perfect for the way Keith liked to fight. He was always a small kid growing up, but swift and agile, so most of the people he fought were bigger than him. He learned that being quick and precise were excellent ways to take down bigger, slower opponents.

That was partially why he wanted to train with something that could match his speed, but he was really regretting it at the moment. Still, he knew he was the best one out of the Paladins when it came to sword fighting, and though he was exhausted, he couldn’t let this thing get at anyone else. No one was wearing their armour and ready for a fight except for Shiro. God, what if it got at  _ Allura _ ? No, he wasn’t going to let that happen.

That was why Keith tried to guide it to one of the less frequented areas of the castle. He grunted as he stumbled back, hitting the entrance to one of the airlocks.

He immediately jumped when a familiar voice called out his name and banged on the door. He looked over his shoulder, confused at first about why Lance was in an  _ airlock _ , and then the horror hit him when he saw the countdown to the airlock actually opening.

"What are you doing in there?" he asked almost hysterically as he brought his sword up to block the Gladiator’s strike, arms shaking as it pushed down on him, blade coming horribly close to his face.

“I’m about to be sucked into space!” Lance yelled back, and looked up as the clock counted down into the single digits. Keith could see him lunge to hold onto something inside so he wouldn’t get yanked out as the door opened.

Panic flared through Keith at Lance’s scream, and he kicked the Gladiator back and then threw himself beside the opening of the airlock, hitting the button to open it and holding on. The Gladiator was sucked out into the vacuum of space, but Keith paid it no mind, leaning over and reaching out towards Lance. “Come on!”

Lance didn’t hesitate to grab his hand, using his long legs to help propel himself up as Keith pulled him inside. Once they were both leaning against the wall, he slammed his hand onto the button to close it again, and everything fell quiet. The only sounds were their ragged breathing.

“What the fuck were you  _ doing _ out there?” Keith asked, voice rising with dread. His hands were shaking, but as he looked towards Lance, he realized he was worse off. That was fair, he’d almost been pulled out into space, and if Keith had taken too long, he would have been asphyxiated, along with many other horrible things if it wasn’t for the castle’s protections.

“What was  _ that _ ?” Lance shot back, his eyes wide as he pointed his thumb towards the airlock.

“He was trying to kill me,” Keith blurted out because holy shit this was absolutely ridiculous.

“Is he the castle? Because that’s who’s trying to kill me!” There was a loud  _ clunk _ from the airlock that startled both of them enough that they immediately got up and ran away from it because  _ fuck _ that.

“This stupid thing is haunted and the spirits are going to kill us all,” Lance panted as they rounded corner after corner, only stopping when there were no windows or doors or any creepy spaces hidden just out of sight. Just a long, plain corridor.

Neither of them said anything after that, mutually coming to the decision to simply flop onto the ground in pure exhaustion. Keith felt like he was going to pass out right then and there as he glanced over at Lance, who was still shaking furiously. His normally warm skin seemed paler, his blue eyes searching for an enemy that wasn’t in sight.

“We’re okay,” Keith breathed out, not quite sure what to do when something was clearly wrong. Was this what the edge of a panic attack looked like? Keith didn’t know and had no idea how to go about helping someone. He wasn’t supposed to touch them, right?

“Do you ever think about how small this castle is? I mean, I know it’s a big castle. Big and empty and creepy. But like, it’s a floating bunch of tubes in the middle of space. A fraction of the size of Earth. We’re stuck here. It’s over 5,000 years old and probably saw a lot of death and destruction and is probably haunted by a bunch of creepy Altean ghosts who want vengeance on us and we’re going to die out here, and I’ll never see my Mamá again, or tell Veronica that I’m sorry for our fight, or-or—” Lance started breathing rapidly.

Keith pushed himself onto his knees and stared at him with alarm. “Lance? Lance, look at me, you need to look at me. You’re okay. We’re not going to die out here, and even if there are ghosts, they don’t want vengeance on us.” He reached out slightly, but then stopped, fingers twitching a bit because he wanted to help but again, you weren’t supposed to touch someone having a panic attack, right?

God, his arms hurt just from holding them up.

Lance somehow managed to look up at him, and Keith remembered Shiro’s breathing exercises. “Deep breath in, hold it, slowly breathe out. Try to match me.” It took a little bit, but Lance somehow managed to do it. He must have been trying really hard to compose himself, because Keith was utter shit at this comforting thing.

“I—thanks man,” the other boy said, hands covering his face. “I can’t believe I broke down like that. Shit’s embarrassing.”

Keith tilted his head slightly, not quite sure what he was getting at. “It happens.” Because it did, and there was nothing at all to be embarrassed about.

“Right, sure,” Lance snorted in clear disbelief. “I’m sure you’re just rife with ridiculous panic attacks.”

“It’s not ridiculous, you have real fears,” Keith argued back sharply. “You think I  _ like _ being cooped up in this castle? My shack may have been small, but I lived in the open desert. Here there are just cold walls and artificial air.” He tried to lift his arms up to cross them, a groan of pain escaping his lips as he let them flop back down. His muscles weren’t having that  _ at all _ .

Glad for the distraction, Lance scooted closer to him, fine eyebrows furrowing. “Are you okay? Jesus, look at those bruises.” His eyes flickered across his arms, which did look a little bad from the strikes the Gladiator managed to get in. Keith felt like a walking bruise. “How was that Gladiator even functioning outside the training arena?”

“I dunno. I tried to do level three, and whatever that was came out and wouldn’t shut off. It followed me out, and I tried to lead it away from where anyone else would be,” Keith explained, wanting to keep it short and simple.

“Haunted,” Lance decided with absolute certainty. “This castle is  _ haunted _ . First the healing pod traps and tries to freeze me, then I’m lured to the airlock by something clearly mimicking Coran’s voice, and that happens to you? Yeah, haunted. Abuela warned me about following voices even if I recognized them. Said those were the worst of the worst.”

Keith’s brow pinched as he thought over all of that. “Lance!” He raised his voice to get the other boy to shut up for a minute. For once, he actually did. He must have been shaken up more than he let on. “I’m not saying the castle’s not haunted, but it could just be really fucked up too.”

“Coran’s been fixing things since we left Arus? Why would today be any—” Lance immediately stopped and stared at Keith, who stared back blankly, not following his thought process. “The one thing we did different today.”

Keith’s eyebrows shot up as he realized what Lance was getting at. “Sendak! We hooked him up to that memory thing. He was supposed to be isolated but…I dunno. Maybe something happened.” Computers weren’t his thing. He was good enough to work them as any other pilot was, but the inner workings of one was not his speciality by any means. It was kind of like how he was really good at repairing his hoverbike, but other things? Not so much.

“Come one, we should check with Pidge to see--” Lance cut himself off with a scream as he was suddenly lifted into the air. “It’s a ghost! It’s got me! Keith!” He flailed around wildly midair.

Keith reached out and grabbed his arms, dragging him closer so they wouldn’t drift away from one another and into who knows what kind of trouble. It was only then that Lance realized that Keith was floating too, and his first horrible thought was that the ghost had them both.

“The artificial gravity was probably shut off,” Keith noted as he looked around. Yeah, that made sense and added up completely.

Embarrassment hit Lance so hard that he felt like he was about to throw up. “Right, no ghost.” He truly was an idiot, wasn’t he? “Sorry. I didn’t—it’s stupid of me to be afraid of a  _ ghost _ of all things. So stupid.”

There was a moment, and Keith’s expression softened. “They really freak you out, huh?”

“My family swears by them, and I—when I was younger my cousins played a prank on me and I know there were logical reasons for things that happened but I swear I could feel something else there and I know that makes me stupid.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s a war and I’m letting ghosts freak me out!”

Keith regarded him with those intense violet eyes, and Lance could almost hear the judging thoughts going through his mind. This was Keith, who was so mission oriented that he didn’t let silly things like that bother him. Why would he?

“Fire,” Keith blurted, fingers twitching. Lance’s eyebrows shot up, and he clarified, “I’m terrified of fire. Which sucks cause Red’s power is  _ fire _ and any time we go through explosions or fire I feel like I’m about to be sick.” He looked down. “That shack…it stared out as a workshop for my dad but over time we worked on it together to make it into almost a little house. I think it was just to do something together, I don’t really remember it was a long time ago. There was…our house used to be there too.” He swallowed, but didn’t say anything else.

Lance stared incredulously at first because was Keith seriously trying to make this about him? Then he realized, no, that’s not what he was doing at all. He was a tad confused about what

Keith was talking about, because what did being afraid of fire have to do with his shack, but then he remembered what Keith said back during their team bonding when they first tried to form Voltron outside of an emergency. He mentioned his father was a firefighter. If he was a firefighter, and Keith now had a fear of fire, and the house wasn’t there anymore…

He kind of wanted to hug Keith, because that was a scenario Lance didn’t at all want to think about. This boy wasn’t trying to overshadow him or make things about  _ him _ , he was trying to relate in his own awkward way. Offering Lance a piece of himself in regards to fear in turn for learning all of this about him. Well, he couldn’t let him share so many specific details.

“Marco, my older brother, and a few of my cousins, pushed me into a cellar when I was little. They locked the door and left me there. It was dark and cold, and there were spiders and maybe a rat, but I swore there was something else there. Something really bad. My Abuela always said that my Tio’s house gave off bad vibes…and I was stuck down there for a few hours.” He looked down. “No one noticed I was gone.”

Keith squeezed his arms. “I think they’re real too. Ghosts? They’re as real as fire.”

A part of Lance felt like he was going to cry. For as freaked out and nervous as Hunk could get over everything, ghosts weren’t one of them. He found them interesting and was fascinated by different beliefs about spirits. It was one of the few things that could freak him out but not Hunk. He brought it up to Pidge once, and she scoffed and went off on a tangent about how everything about humans, hauntings, and so much more could be explained by science. Yet, here was Keith, grade-A jerk and his rival, agreeing with him. Sharing personal things with him.

Making him feel like he wasn’t at all crazy, and that meant so, so much.

Keith released one of his arms, and reached towards the ceiling that they drifted close to. He used it to try and push them along, grimacing from the strain in his muscles. A small twitch of his fingers was the only thing Lance caught that showed his discomfort. “We can’t float here forever, and something weird is going on. If it _ is _ that crystal, we gotta find Pidge. Hunk too.” He glanced at him. “If it’s ghosts, we’ll figure that out too.” It was very clear from his tone of voice that he was serious, not just humouring him.

“Right,” Lance breathed out. He then pried his arm away from Keith before holding onto him instead, keeping his grip gentle so he wouldn’t hurt the bruises too much. “You look like you’re going to fall apart. Let me do this.” He moved them forward, looking for a softer place to fall at least. Keith somehow helped him keep it together mentally, so the least he could do was help him out in return. Because he didn’t want his rival to get one up on him, of course. That was absolutely the reason why.

Though it was really hard to keep that thought in mind sometimes. 

“Okay,” Keith agreed quietly, though he did use his free hand to help steady them. “After this, I’m taking the world’s biggest nap.”

“That is probably the first time I’ve wholeheartedly agreed with any of your plans ever,” Lance said with a nod of his head as they slowly continued on their way.

…

Pidge looked over the information on the screen in front of her, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She’d never seen anything quite like the output of the Galra crystal in the room. 

“What are you hoping to get from that thing anyway?” Hunk asked curious as he situated the sparkling egg in the incubator that he built for it. Coran helped him figure out how to use different Altean materials to keep the egg safe. They weren’t entirely sure what species it was, just that it didn’t seem at all close to hatching.

She didn’t bother looking at him, instead going from one piece of data to the next. “If we can modulate the dynamics of the crystal, we’ll be able to reverse engineer a lot of Galra tech. We might even be able to create a device that will allow us to deplete the energy of their ships. They’d be sitting ducks. Not to mention they have to come from somewhere. If we can find this place, then maybe we have the chance to cut them off.”

Hunk hummed slightly and looked at her, his dark brown eyes digging into her every thought somehow (though that was entirely illogical). “I did a bit of reading, and the Galra were big into mining.”

Images of the advanced mining machinery on the Balmera came to mind, and Pidge nodded her head. “That makes sense. They probably take resources from a lot of worlds. They’d have to control populations somehow.” Another thought came to her. “And Shiro said something about them sending Matt and dad to mine or something.” Her heart leapt. “That makes so much sense. They must have billions, even trillions of prisoners across the galaxies. Think of how many prisoners there are on Earth, and then multiply that by the amount of planets that the Galra control. They have to be using them for something.” Mining. Labour. Farms. Entertainment. That all made sickening sense. “Maybe if we can pinpoint where this crystal comes from, we can find one of their mines and get more information on the others.”

Maybe they’d find her family there.

There was a clunking sound from above their heads, and Hunk jerked up, eyes darted to the ceiling with suspicion.

“Calm down,” she replied dully.

“Listen, that whole food goo ambush really set me on edge,” Hunk said as he checked the defenses on the incubator yet again. It was kind of sweet in an annoying way. “Small mistakes can cause big ones and that was a pretty big one, but what if it’s not the only one.”

“This ship is 5,000 years old,” Pidge pointed out. “It’s going to have glitches that take a while to fix. It’s a fantastic feat of science for it to work as it does.” Honestly, she’d love to sink her teeth into the programming of the castle. It was fascinating enough that no matter if they were horizontal or vertical, everything looked the same and it didn’t feel like anything altered around them. That was just one thing it did. Matt and her dad would probably drool over the tech in the castle when they found them.

She reached out to grab her laptop, when she suddenly lifted off the ground. Pidge yelped and looked around. “Hunk! Did you accidentally hit the anti-gravity switch?”

“Uh, no.” He twisted over to look down at the incubator, which sat snugly on the floor, completely fine. “Looks like that works well. Wait—what anti-gravity switch? You have one of those?”

Pidge chose to ignore him because of  _ course _ she had one of those, what kind of person would she be otherwise? She eyed the panel in question and tried to lunge towards it. Stretching as far as she could, Pidge kicked her legs and waved her arms. “Curse my short arms!” Seriously, everyone else in her family was tall, why was she so short?

Well, her Nonna was short too. Pidge shuddered at the thought of her Nonna and looked over her shoulder as if the little old lady would appear out of nowhere.

“Oh, I hate those little things,” Hunk said thoughtlessly. Pidge twisted around to look at him, and he seemed to think about what he said for a moment before shrugging. Okay, that was fair. “I’ll try to swim towards you. Hang on.”

Pidge watched as he moved his arms in a swimming motion incredulously. “Please tell me you did not just do that.”

“I was having a moment,” he argued. “This castle is falling apart.”

“Calm your inner Lance and stop being so dramatic.” Seriously, what was with everyone here? She looked around as she drifted closer to the wall. While she could bounce herself off of that and get some momentum, it wouldn’t send her in the right direction. She needed to go  _ down _ .

“Wait. Wait, wait!” she exclaimed as an idea came to her. “I have an idea!” Pidge tried to grab onto the grooves of the wall as much as she could. “I’m going to fling myself at you, and then I want you to push me as hard as you can.”

“Wait! I don’t want to do that! We’re friends!”

Well, that was sweet, but also, seriously Hunk? “Push me so I have enough momentum to get to the controls.” He thought about it for a moment before nodding his head, the pieces clicking together as they should for an engineer. This was just a giant puzzle, and Pidge loved puzzles. She was sure that Hunk liked them in some form too. They could do this.

Pidge kicked off the wall as hard as she could, and flew towards Hunk. Honestly, being in zero gravity was kind of thrilling, and if this was on purpose, it might honestly be fun. She collided with Hunk, who was quick to push her down before her momentum could send them both to the side. She shot down, and managed to grab onto the console before she slowed too much and drifted back up.

With a couple of quick button taps, gravity came back. Pidge fell to the floor, a small twinge of pain rushing through her legs. She grimaced in sympathy as Hunk crashed into the floor, and looked to the door in confusion as she heard a bang from the hall, followed by a loud, filthy curse and a high pitched yelp.

Looks like Keith and Lance were there.

“The castle’s trying to kill us!” Lance exclaimed as he burst into the room, arms out dramatically. “And I blame that thing.” He pointed at the Galra crystal.

Hunk rubbed his head as he sat up again, once again checking on the egg. He was really taking that seriously, wasn’t he? “It’s the castle malfunctioning.” 

“All at once?” Lance demanded angrily. “Coran’s been fixing it up for days now!”

“And I’ve had this crystal plugged in for days,” Pidge replied, pointing towards it. “Nothing weird happened before.” She wasn’t going to unplug it unless she had to.

“It’s just gravity, Lance” Hunk said, no doubt trying to soothe him. “And we had a weird food goo malfunction. That’s it.”

“That’s it?  _ That’s it _ ?!” Lance’s voice rose angrily. “I was almost trapped in a pod, and ejected into space! And those were two separate things even though the pods can toss you out too so I’m lucky that didn’t happen then!” It was actually a safety precaution, in case something happened to the castle and there were people in the pods.

Her eyes drifted towards Keith, who hovered a bit behind Lance, holding one of his arms. She grimaced at the massive bruise there. “What happened to you?”

“A robot tried to kill me,” Keith answered, not at all impressed.

Lance pointed at him. “See? The castle’s gone apples and bananas! And it’s just today.”

“Just today.” Pidge looked at the crystal with a frown. She was sure it wasn’t doing anything weird. It was admittedly odd that all of these things happened to them in the same time frame, in ranging forms of severity. Perhaps Coran, Shiro, or even Allura experienced something else?

The ship was glitchy. It was old, but everything at once was an anomaly. So what would have changed that? They could have passed through some form of radiation that they didn’t notice but caused an affect. Coran could have debugged the wrong thing and let a virus loose.

Or maybe they accidentally uploaded the virus themselves.

“Sendak!” she gasped. “We plugged in Sendak!” It was the only thing different (outside of Shiro’s crankiness) that really made sense. They essentially created an AI of their enemy, so if something happened and it wasn’t quite contained…

“That’s what I said!” Lance burst out.

“Of course you did.” No way he’d put that together. It wasn’t that Lance was completely stupid, but he wasn’t exactly smart either. “If the AI wasn’t contained it could have done something with this crystal.” They needed to unplug it as quickly as possible, except, the crystal wasn’t the real problem, was it? Still, she ripped all the cords off of it, not bothering to properly shut anything down. Pidge yelped and recoiled, palms stinging from the intense heat coming from the cords. She pressed them against her sleeves, not worried about too much damage, having experienced burns and shocks on her hands before.

There was no time to worry about that either. She shoved her slightly askew glasses back up the bridge of her nose, brain running over everything they needed to do. Maybe it wasn’t Sendak or the Galra crystal doing weird things to the castle, but they had to double check. They couldn’t risk the castle, since it was their only way to travel, and a lot more advanced than most things they had come across. “We need to make sure whatever this is doesn’t do anything to the communications network. The last thing we need is some signal coming from the castle like a beacon for the Galra.” They couldn’t risk the castle. She knew they’d find Matt in the future, that vision she had of her brother invigorated her again, but it would be so much harder if they were tracked, the castle was attacked, or they imploded or something ridiculous like that.

“So Coran probably knows the most about that. He needs to know what’s happening,” Hunk summarized, and she nodded in agreement.

“Pidge, Hunk, Lance, you guys go to Coran, get him to check things and bring him down to Sendak. We need to unplug him somehow,” Keith said, straightening his shoulders without wincing, though from the bruising, it had to be painful.

“Woah there buddy boy,” Lance said and held his hands up at Keith. “Where are  _ you _ going?”

Annoyance crossed his features as he said, “The last we saw Shiro he was  _ with _ Sendak. I’m going ahead to check on him.”

Pidge started at that, because she hadn’t even considered that something else might be happening with Shiro. She knew Sendak taunted him when the castle was taken over, that Sendak knew more about his imprisonment than he let on. Shiro was completely on edge from whatever it was he saw or went through on Bataria, so if anything weird was going on down there, it could be very bad.

“I’m coming with you then,” Lance insisted, narrowing his eyes at him. “Buddy systems exist for a reason you know.”

Keith looked so genuinely startled that it made Pidge chuckle. Hunk, meanwhile, was nodding his head in agreement with Lance. “He’s right. The buddy system is the best way to go.”

“Alright,” he said with a nod towards Lance. “Let’s go. I don’t want to leave Shiro alone for too long.” He looked back at Pidge and Hunk. “Check on Allura too.” With that, he headed towards the door, Lance squawking at him to wait up as he took off after him.

“You heard bossy over there,” Pidge said with a nod. “Let’s get moving.” They needed to shut down whatever nonsense this was, and they needed to do it fast.

…

Coran was on his way to check on Allura when the gravity on the ship stopped working. Luckily, this wasn’t his first time dealing with this kind of thing, so he was excellent at pushing himself from wall to wall to get where he needed to be.

Luckily, when he reached Allura’s chambers, she was sleepily looking around, pure confusion across her features. She was so painfully young, only 200 years old, but she looked even younger at that moment.

“Coran?” she muttered, holding her blanket around her like a cocoon, the mice holding on for dear life.

“A few glitchy systems is all,” he said confidently, sure that it was an easy fix. For all he knew, Pidge was at the coding, or Hunk was playing with the machines again. Those two had brilliant minds for a less advanced species (though that was clearly not the norm, judging from the other three). “Where do you happen to keep your portable gravity generator?”

“Oh, it’s down in my vanity,” Allura answered him. Coran nodded and twisted gracefully in the air, kicking off of the high ceiling and towards the vanity in question. He was careful to keep it covered so that all of her things wouldn’t float out (Coran also had no intention of invading her privacy),finding the little device with ease. With a quick push, Coran floated back up to the ceiling with her, and turned it on.

It probably would have been smarter to do that after guiding the Princess down, but a little fall was good for the soul every now and then. They both bounced on her bed before Coran shifted off to stand at her side. “Now, I’m going to go get this fixed. Is there anything that you need?”

“No, I’m quite alright, thank you,” Allura answered with a nod, holding her hands out for the mice. They scampered up onto her shoulder, curling up on her hair as he laid back down. “Everything is okay?”

“Everything is fine,” Coran assured her. Once he was sure that she drifted off, he left the safety of the portable gravity generator, since it only had a small field, allowing himself to drift towards the ceiling and out the door.

A moment later, he fell back to the floor with a loud thump and an oof. Looks like one of the paladins either fixed it, or the castle fixed itself. It was probably the latter, but that didn’t really matter. At least Allura wouldn’t drift off again if the gravity generator had a few hiccups again.

Coran straightened his shirt as he stood, grimacing as his back cracked slightly, but it wasn’t too bad. He could stand a few kinks. Now, the kinks in this castle, those were things that had to be dealt with as soon as possible.

…

“I would  _ never _ join the Galra Empire,” Shiro spat out with more hatred than he could ever truly remember feeling. The thought of willingly joining a cause that hurt so many made his stomach twist violently.

Sendak’s eyes were closed again, maybe they’d never been open in the first place. He was still, so painfully still, but his voice was loud. It echoed through the room, causing Shiro’s head to pound.

“We’re connected, you and me,” Sendak said to him, far too smugly. “Two parts of one same whole. Great warriors of the Galra Empire.”

“No!” His hands were shaking as he glared heatedly at the pod.

“Oh, but you are. So very much. Broken and turned into something far superior. Once weak and now strong thanks to our Emperor.” Now he sounded almost amused. “Just look at your hand.”

Shiro’s grey eyes darted down towards his curled fist that was glowing that sickly, Galra purple he was starting to hate more and more. Even the violet lights within Black were better than this, though even they made him a bit uncomfortable at times. “This isn’t me. I didn’t make this choice.”

“It’s the strongest part of you. Embrace it. What are you without it at this point? A defenseless paladin with no bayard. The others have no idea what you’ve seen, what you know. You’ve seen the grandness of the Galra Empire. You reaped the rewards of being a victor.”

“No! I never enjoyed that!” Shiro’s memories of the arena were hazy, but he knew that they were all life or death matches. Some might be pulled away on the edge of death to be used as experiments (he thought back to the first robeast that they fought), but most died. Shiro killed hundreds of innocents, and some not-so-innocents.

He played up his desire for bloodlust, encouraged the fear so he could live, but he never enjoyed it. That wasn’t him, was it?

“You know the truth,” Sendak’s voice whispered in his mind. Shiro thought he heard someone else calling his name in the distance, but it was so faint that he couldn’t recognize it. “You’ll never defeat Emperor Zarkon. He has already won.”

“No,” Shiro whispered again. No, he couldn’t believe that. Wouldn’t believe it. They did have a chance to win, he knew they did.

“Four pathetic paladins, two Alteans from a bygone era, and a monster for a leader. How long will you last before you strike one of them down again? That is what you do, after all, you hurt others so you can survive. That is not something we gave you. That was there all along.”

Shiro’s vision blurred because that wasn’t true. It wasn’t at all! Except…he knew he was sick and that Adam was worried for him, but he insisted on going to space. Refused to talk about it. He agreed to the mission and left without even considering what would happen to Keith, and he had been his sole legal guardian at the time, with nothing official set in place for Adam to step in for him. He killed innocents so he could survive.

His mind flashed back to Bataria. His glowing hand nearly made contact with Keith. If Lance wouldn’t have pulled him out of harm’s way, Shiro would have gravely injured him, maybe even killed him.

But no, that couldn’t be him. It wasn’t him. He wanted to do good. He wanted to make sure that everyone was prepared for when he wasn’t there to help anymore. He wanted to help as many as he possibly could while he could.

“Monster,” Sendak whispered. He repeated it again and again, getting louder and louder until he was shouting.

“Shut up!” Shiro roared and moved on instinct, ripping the protective covering off of the pod’s control panel, and slammed his glowing hand onto the eject button before he fell to his knees. He didn’t even actually watch the pod drop into the castleship and then out into space, staring blankly down at the floor instead.

“Shiro.” The voice that had been calling him finally broke through, and after a moment, he raised his eyes up. Keith was a few feet away, looking every bit like he’s gotten into a fight with a pack of bullies (again), and clearly wanting to come closer. Thankfully, Lance had a firm grip on his upper arm and didn’t seem inclined to let him go, blue eyes flickering to Shiro’s glowing hand warily.

He unclenched his fist, the purple vanishing along with the heat. “Keith. Lance.” At the clear recognition of them, Lance let go of Keith’s arm, who darted closer. Shiro would really have to thank Lance later on for stopping his brother. Keith meant well, but he was a bit reckless with his own safety when it came to those that he cared about.

“What happened?” Keith asked, brow furrowed, violet eyes scanning him.

“He just spaced Sendak is what happened,” Lance interjected, eyebrows rising up as he held out his hands.

Keith glanced at him for a split second before turning his attention back to his brother. “Shiro…”

It was then that Shiro realized exactly what it was that he had done. They had a single prisoner from the Galra Empire, Zarkon’s second-in-command at that, and he had just ejected him into space. With how fast the castleship went, it’d be difficult to backtrack and find him, and that was if the sensors were working on the pod.

“I—” Shiro stumbled over his words as he looked from one teen to the other. “I’m sorry. That was stupid of me.” He shook his head. There was really no reason to make an excuse. “The things that he was saying…they got inside my head. I shouldn’t have let it, but it did.” Keith and Lance quickly looked at one another with mild alarm before looking back to him, both very clearly worried.

“He  _ was _ talking, wasn’t he?” Shiro asked, a brand new worry hitting him. Surely he hadn’t imagined all of that? It wasn’t possible that his mind conjured up something like that on its own, was it? Though he had read about PTSD and the things that could happen, but he didn’t think his was that bad.

His heart dropped when both boys shook their heads negatively. He leaned forward and put his head in his hands. Keith’s hand rested on his shoulder, a solid, real comfort to keep him grounded in reality. Lance shifted forward as well, but kept his distance a little bit, which Shiro appreciated. He didn’t want to be coddled.

“Shiro!” Pidge’s voice called out, echoing in the large chamber as she ran into the room. “Are you okay?”

“Where’s Sendak?” Hunk asked, both baffled and worried as he scanned the room as if the Galra was about to jump out at them.

“I’m okay. I had to get him out of here. He can’t be trusted in the castle.” Shiro didn’t mention the voices that he had heard.

Coran, who followed Pidge and Hunk into the room, looked at the screens around Sendak’s memory, which was still in-tact. He frowned, and typed rapidly. “Pidge, I need you to pull those cables out!”

She practically lunged at it, grabbing the cables in question and ripping them out of the console. The screen flashed and what looked like warnings or errors popped up on it. Coran sighed in relief.

“The failsafes on Sendak’s AI—we—failed. It must have been a glitch in the castle,” Coran looked at them, almost ashamed.

“It wasn’t just you, I think the AI accessed the Galra crystal too in order to power different systems. That was on me, I should have put up better firewalls,” Pidge admitted.

“What? What’s been happening?” Shiro asked, a bit alarmed.

“I got stuck in a cryo-pod, then, in an airlock. Keith got attacked by a robot, Hunk and Pidge got attacked by food. Then we all went flying from no gravity.” Lance stared at him with almost hysterical eyes, though his words were decently calm (albeit, a bit dramatic). “It's been a weird day.”

“This AI has been wreaking havoc on many systems, though our main ones are heavily protected and it wasn’t able to break in. That’s likely why it went after the gravity, the pods, the locks, the training systems. It looks like it even released some chemicals that can induce hallucinations.”

“Why is that a system in the castle?” Hunk asked, and Shiro wanted to know that too. “And are we breathing that in right now?”

“Recreational reasons,” Coran replied with a shrug as if that explained everything, and maybe it did explain a few things about him that Shiro really didn’t want to think about right now. That was future Shiro’s problem. “Looks like there was only a bit released a while ago, likely enough to cause some problems.” He met Shiro’s gaze, and the young man realized that he couldn’t entirely blame the drugs on what he had seen, but it certainly aggravated his PTSD.

“So we’re  _ not _ breathing it in right now?” Hunk clarified, and it really was something that needed a straight answer. If they were all going to hallucinate, they were probably safer barricaded in their rooms.

“No, we’re all okay here. Though there was a decent amount that was released in another part of the castle by the looks of it, though I can’t tell which floor yet.” Coran went to check something else when the entire ship jerked, and everyone stumbled.

“What is that?” Keith demanded as he managed to stay on his feet.

The console where Coran was at flashed red as he brought himself back up, brow furrowing with confusion. “The ship is starting a wormhole jump!”

High pitched squeaking reached their ears as two of the mice, the tall one and the little blue one (Shiro couldn’t remember their names), ran up to the console and started motioning wildly to Coran.

For a wild moment, Shiro thought that he could understand them too, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Apparently they  _ could _ understand the schematics better than he could, because they were pointing at the red area and squeaking.

Coran gasped. “The chemicals!” He turned and ran, the mice leaping onto him, leaving the rest of them confused.

“What just happened?” Hunk asked, looking over at Keith, who looked back helplessly.

“Do we get our suits?” Lance asked, taking Shiro out of his surprise. That was right, something bad was going on and no weirdness should startle them at this point.

He weighed the pros and cons quickly, since he was the only one wearing his (Keith didn’t even have his normal jacket on), before he said, “Pidge, can you tell from that screen if there is any Altean drugs on the loose anywhere?” There was no need to tiptoe around what it really was. He questioned Alteans a lot.

She took only a second to look over the images and shook her head. “It looks like it was only in Allura’s room. It looks like it travelled through specific pipes and those don’t connect to the bridge. Which makes sense since no one would want the people piloting the ship to be impaired.” Pidge looked less than impressed with the thought of it.

“Alright, we go as is. There’s no time to waste.” Shiro led the way out of the door and towards the bridge, hoping against all hope that Allura wasn’t being taunted the way he had been.

No one deserved to have that happen to them.

…

After the artificial gravity came back on, Allura settled on her bed, a bit more tired than she wanted to let on. Though she was getting much better, she was at one of the lows of her recovery.

Still, she was half awake when she heard a hauntingly familiar voice whisper her name. “Allura?”

Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked around with confusion. The mice all squeaked at her, projecting thoughts of alarm into her mind, but she couldn’t pay attention to that. She couldn’t really focus on anything for whatever reason, but didn’t worry about it too much. Why should she worry when her father was standing there before her?

“Dear daughter, you must come with me,” he urged her gently. “There is something you must know. Something you must see.”

Allura pushed herself up, staring up at him before clamouring the way out of her bed, grabbing her nightgown to keep her decency. “Father, what are you doing here?” He silently held something out to her, and Allura’s chest tightened when she saw the juniberry flower in his hand. She took it from him and stared at it. “I don’t understand.”

“Flowers from Altea were always the most beautiful,” he noted.

She was incredibly confused, and a little woozy, but agreed with him nonetheless. “Yes. It is sad when I only see them in my dreams. That I will never see one again.”

“No, my daughter, that is what I must show you.” Her father smiled at her. “Altea is not merely a dream, Allura. It exists. I can take you there. I can take you home.”

Her eyes widened, lips parting with surprise. The computers told her that Altea was gone, and no one seemed to know what it was. Though they hadn’t actually gone to the area where Altea once was. A part of her wanted to, but was far too afraid of seeing the empty space.

Was it possible that the planet was still alive, that the computers were wrong? They were so old that it was possible that the information within it was wrong. Especially if it was gathered from transmissions that could have been misleading.

“You can?” she asked, unable to hide her hope.

Alfor’s smile spread even further as he asked, “Would you like to go home?”

Allura choked on a sob and she nodded her head quickly. She wanted to go home more than anything else in the entire universe. So desperately wanted to see the flower fields and taste the berries that grew from them. To experience the festivals and listen to the silly gossip from the lords and ladies that governed Altea under her family’s direction. To flirt with the lords and look at potential prospects of the future. To love her home and be loved in return. She wanted that so, so badly.

The mice were squeaking loudly, mentally urging her to stop, but how could she when she could actually go home? When she could take  _ them _ home too. They were just mice, they didn’t understand.

“Come with me, I will show you the way.” He motioned to the door, and Allura followed him. Two of the mice grabbed onto her dress as if to stop her, and the other two ran off, but that was okay. They were just being silly. Everything would be okay. 

…

The two mice that were with them led the group to the command deck, but no matter how Coran tried, the door wouldn’t respond to him. He tried the sensors, and to open it manually, but nothing worked.

“I can try to hack and rewrite it,” Pidge suggested.

“We don’t have that kind of time,” Coran answered with a shake of his head, because that was his next idea too. The wormhole was already open, and given how low the power levels within the castle were lately, Allura was the only one that could possibly be powering it. Not only was that alarming because there was no reason she should be doing that, but she was still recovering. Using this type of quintessence was dangerous.

Keith muttered something to Shiro, who nodded his head. The elder of the two came forward, fist glowing. “Move.”

The Altean was quick to dart out of the way as Shiro used his Galra hand to melt the door away from the wall. There was a flash of light, and Coran looked around to see Keith move by him, wedging his bayard into the hole Shiro made to try and help pry it open.

“His bayard won’t break, right?” Lance asked him.

“It should be fine. It’s made from Altean material with just a bit of the metal from the lions,” he explained.

“Alright then.” Lance went beside Keith, grabbed onto the hilt of the sword, and helped him pull. Hunk came up behind the two of them to add his strength to it. With Shiro melting parts of the door, they managed to pry it open just enough for Pidge and the mice to slip through. Coran had no idea what she was doing on the other side, but he could hear some whirring and realized that she was probably trying to hack the door. She must have been successful, because it slid open smoothly, stopping half way.

Everyone else got through before the door tried to shut again with a terrible screeching sound. That was going to be awful to fix. Now wasn’t the time to focus on that though.

Coran focused his attention forward, horror stabbing through him as he saw Allura standing at the controls in her nightdress and robe, Alfor’s AI at her side. The AI should not have been able to access this room. That was something that Alfor himself made sure wouldn’t happen. The AI flickered just slightly, with small blips of purple energy flashing from it. The energy from the Galra crystal.

It was proof that Alfor’s AI had been corrupted by Sendak and the crystal.

“Allura!” Shiro approached her, concern in his voice. “What’s going on?”

She looked around at them, a bright smile on her face. “We’re going to Altea. We’re going home! My father found records of it. It’s still there!”

Coran’s heart broke at how utterly happy she looked. “No, Allura.” He approached her, his voice soft. “It’s not.” How he wished Altea was still there. That their people were still there. He knew that they were gone though. He was sure of it.

“Stay away from her!” Alfor’s AI yelled, and a shield appeared around her, throwing him and Shiro back. Hunk grabbed Coran before he could hit the floor, but Shiro crashed into Keith, who wasn’t quite strong enough, and they both toppled over.

“This is bad,” Hunk muttered, brown eyes scanning the scene wildly as they jetted through the wormhole. “This is very bad.”

“Sendak’s AI must have corrupted Alfor’s AI since they were kept together and he had the support power from the Galra crystal,” Pidge noted, summing up Coran’s thoughts.

“There were safeguards in place to keep Alfor’s AI in the memory chamber, but it must have been the same failed one that was supposed to keep Sendak’s in the prison chamber. They would have been able to access one another.” They needed to think of something and fast.

They came out of the other end of the wormhole, and Coran cringed away at the sudden brightness of the massive, raging star in front of them.

“Oh no,” Lance gasped and took a step back as if that would help them.

“Allura!” Keith yelled as he got back to his feet. “Snap out of it!” He looked over at Coran. “What the fuck’s in those drugs?”

“They are…quite powerful, especially to the young. They’re normally only used with groups of consenting adults to spice things up,” Coran admitted.

There was a brief pause as Lance’s head snapped towards him. “Like an Altean or—” Keith slapped his hand over his mouth, mildly horrified. Hunk and Pidge just looked confused.

“Not the time,” Shiro said, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else.

Right. Certain doom lay before them. “Allura! This isn’t real!”

Allura could hear Coran, like a faint voice in the back of her mind, but what he said didn’t seem right. She could  _ see _ Atlea before her. She could see the vegetation and the large spaces for the fields, the mountains, the clouds, the artificial rings around it.

Her eyes welled up a bit. She could see home.

“Home,” she muttered.

“That’s right,” her father said soothingly. “Soon you will be there again.” He motioned to the flower she still held within one of her hands. “There will be as many of these as you desire on the other side.”

“Yes,” she said, positively lighting up with excitement. “I can’t wait to show the Paladins. These are the most exquisite flowers of all.”

“It’s not real!” Shiro’s voice called out to her.

“Allura! Snap out of it!” That was Keith.

“Come on, Allura!” Hunk.

“Allura, wake up!” And Lance.

“Please Allura!” There was Pidge.

“Allura, you have to listen to me!” Coran. He was much clearer this time. Why were they all so upset? Why was  _ he _ so upset? They were going home, weren’t they? Surely Coran wanted to see Altea as much as she did.

Unless this wasn’t real at all.

“This is real, right?” Allura asked her father almost uncertainly, because once she said the words, something tasted bitter in her mouth.

Her father stared straightforward. “Of course it is, daughter.” He motioned to Altea as they drew closer. “The flower you’re touching is real.”

She looked at the flower and smiled. “Yes, yes of course.” How could she deny it was real when she could see it and feel it?

“Allura!” Coran cried out to her. “Describe the fragrance of the sweet juniberry to the Paladins! They’ve never experienced it!”

He was absolutely right, and that was a complete shame. She brought the flower up and tried to smell it, so she could share her thoughts, but there was no smell. There was nothing. Juniberry blossoms were known for their sweet aroma. There was no such thing as one that smelled, well, like nothing.

Nothing, because it wasn’t there. The mice told her none of it was real. The paladins were yelling at her that it wasn’t real. Coran was telling her it wasn’t real.

It was like something snapped in her mind, and in the blink of an eye, Altea was gone, replaced by a sun on the edge of a supernova explosion. Fear and horror hit her hard, and she felt like she was going to vomit. “That’s not ideal.”

“When that star goes supernova, it will destroy the entire system!” Pidge cried out from her station to the left of Allura. She looked at her almost desperately. “You need to open another wormhole and get us out of there!”

Allura dove for the controls, but was thrown backwards. She cried out in shock, even as Shiro managed to catch her. Holding onto him tightly, she stared at the AI of her father, mind trying to catch up to what was happening. How they got there didn’t matter. They needed to stop it, now. The castle didn’t appear to be going anywhere near its top speed, which was good. They would have been dead already if it was.

“Father! Please I beg you, turn this ship around. If you don’t we will all perish.”

“That is my intention,” the AI said, his voice suddenly deeper, tinted with a growl that didn’t at all sound like her father.

“What?” she asked as she straightened herself up. Allura took a step away from Shiro, who held out an arm just in case she needed it. Bless him, because she did feel like she was going to faint, and not from her illness.

The AI looked back at her, a mockery of her father’s image. "Don't you see, dear daughter? Zarkon can never be defeated. He's been ruling for five thousand years."

“And we can stop him!” she shouted, taking a step forward and placing her hand on the shield that stopped her from going to the controls.

“For what purpose? Altea is gone forever. You don't have to live a lifetime of war. You can be with me and the rest of your people. With your mother.”

Allura couldn’t stop the sob from escaping her as she brought her fist up and slammed it onto the shield. “No!” She blinked her eyes rapidly. “We can still stop Zarkon! Somewhere in there, you must want that to happen!” This wasn’t her father. It wasn’t. She had no idea what was going on, but this was wrong. There had to be pieces of him in there somewhere.

Almost as if her words triggered something, the AI began to glitch, phasing in and out and reminding her again that he wasn’t really there. He wasn’t real. “Allura,” the AI looked at her desperately. “My AI has been corrupted. You must disconnect my power source.” It glitched again, the voice switching. “We can stroll across the Blossom Canyon every morning, just like we used to. Remember how much you loved that? Your mother will be with us.”

They were going to die. She had no idea what led up to this point, but if she didn’t do something, they would all be gone, taking the only hope to defeat Zarkon with them. “I remember,” she choked out to him before turning to face the others. All the Paladins, even Shiro, seemed shaken. “There’s no way to remove him from his power source here, is there?”

Pidge shook her head. “I’m locked out of pretty much everything here. But it looks like the AI is fighting with itself. It’s why the castle’s moving so slowly.”

A part of her father wanted to save them. That was important. That was good.

“What do you want us to do?” Keith asked as he met her gaze. Goodness, what happened to him? He had so many bruises. Humans really were so delicate.

The others all stared at her, waiting for her decision. They were staring death in the face, and though she’d been out of action, they all were still willing to follow her lead.

“I’ve got to get to the AI chamber and disconnect my father’s power source manually,” she decided, trying to keep her voice from wavering.

“Allura,” Coran spoke softly. “That will mean losing King Alfor forever. There are no backup copies.”

She took a deep breath, because that was something she feared a lot. Allura dared not look back at the AI. “Paladins. I need you to get to your lions. They move much faster than the castle currently is, so they should be able to slow it down, even push us backwards.”

Coran didn’t question her decision at all, caution gone as he nodded his head. “I’ll try to override the system to the hangers.”

“If not, we’ll rip our way out and fix it later,” Shiro spoke firmly. He turned to the Paladins. “Let’s move. We need to give Allura as much time as possible.”

Everyone else nodded and ran out of the room. Allura wasted no time following after them, branching off and running into the depths of the ship as opposed to the hangars. She heard squeaks behind her, encouraging brushes against her mind from the mice. They assured her again and again that she was doing the right thing.

As she approached the memory chamber, Coran announced over the now working intercom that the lions were outside. That was good. Really good.

Allura burst into the room, pausing for only a moment as she was surrounded by Altea’s juniberry fields. She sucked in a deep breath and trudged forward, the image twisting around her.

“Don’t do this,” her father whispered.

“You must,” the other part of him argued back.

“All of my memories, all of my knowledge will be lost forever.” That almost made her pause, because there was so much her father knew that no one else had. There were rumours that he even found Oriande, though he never confirmed such a thing to her. Still, if he did, they would be losing that irreplaceable knowledge too. It could help them.

“Do it, Allura,” her father urged her. “If you are to live, we must say goodbye.”

That was right. If she didn’t do this, it wouldn’t matter what her father knew. His knowledge was going to be lost to the universe either way, no matter what she chose. Though maybe if she lived, she could help keep it alive. Keep his memory alive.

“I am so sorry about this, father,” she said, her voice cracking as she walked forward, ignoring him as he appeared by her.

“There is so much I wish I could have told you about the enemy,” her father admitted in his soothing voice, not the deep one that sounded just wrong. “Before I placed you in that pod I should have told you about what I’ve done. About Zarkon and Honvera. About  _ them _ . About my own mistakes and faults.” He paused and fondly added, “About how proud of you I am.”

“Oh, my dear daughter,” the deep voice broke through. The juniberries vanished, and instead she was surrounded by memories. Memories of a childhood filled with laughter and happiness. Piggyback rides through the fields. Dancing and spinning. Sitting together and reading with her mother. Memories of when she fell and hurt herself and he was there for her. Of when she was mad at him and pouting because he wouldn’t let her keep the Paladin helmet on. Moments when she didn’t do her duties and he wasn’t happy. Good and bad mixing all together in front of her.

She remembered every single moment clearly.

Her father appeared in front of her. “You don’t have to fight, Allura. You don’t have to make this sacrifice.” He held his arms out towards her.

The memories danced around her as she reached out to hug him, tears flowing down her cheeks. “It is the Altean way.” To put the many before the individual. To take the noble route even if it meant sacrifice yourself. “Goodbye, father.”

It glitched back, arms coming up to wrap around her. “Goodbye, Allura.”

The illusions around her broke as she shattered the controls, and for a wild moment, Allura wished that her rough skin could have been pierced by the shattered glass and metal to match the pain that overtook her head.

She fell to her knees and sobbed into her hands. She heard Coran call to the Paladins to come back to the ship, and felt it come alive with the power to create a wormhole again.

Still, she didn’t get up. Not because she couldn’t though. For the first time in a while she felt like she could physically move like she used to. She felt far too much.

Soft fur brushed against her, followed by small squeaks. She looked down at her four mice, another sob escaping her lips as she held her hands out to them. They climbed up, and she pulled them close to her head. “I am so sorry. I will never ignore you again.” She should have listened. They warned her it wasn’t real.

Allura looked at the remains of the AI. The last connection she had to her father. It was the last time she could talk to him. Before, it was like he wasn’t truly dead, but now he was gone and he would never be back. She did that.

It might not have actually been her father, but it still felt like she had watched him die.

In the now empty memory chamber, with only her mice as witness, she screamed in anguish.

…

Everyone sat together in the lounge, just waiting. They were all clad in their Paladin armour once again, having thrown it on to go outside and stop the ship from colliding with a supernova. Their lions were ridiculously fast and strong, so despite being much smaller than the castle, they were able to keep it steady until Allura could shut down her father, and Coran could bail them out. Coran too had joined them, sitting down and looking properly exhausted for once. That was good. He was way too chipper most times.

Lance honestly wanted to just curl up somewhere and sleep for a decade. Nah, that was too long. Three years seemed like a pretty good amount though.

“I wanted to apologize to you all,” Shiro spoke up, breaking the heavy silence. “I’ve been really pushing you a lot in the last couple days.” He took a deep breath. “When I was in the caves on Bataria, I confronted Zarkon – a fake version of him at least. I shouldn’t have pushed you all so much because I got a little shook up.”

“It happens,” Hunk assured him, cradling his sparkling egg close to him. “I mean, it was rough, but yeah.”

“I think for the rest of the night, and then tomorrow, we should all take it easy.” Shiro looked at them one by one. “We’re the first humans to actively explore this far from home. The mission is our top priority, but it’d be a shame to not take everything in while we have the chance.”

For whatever reason, that seemed to make Keith tense up and eye Shiro warily. It looked like he was about to say something when the door slid open. They all looked up as Allura entered the room, the mice on her slumped shoulders. Coran stood as she approached, but back off as she smiled at him sadly.

Lance didn’t know how she kept it together so well. He’d be screaming and crying if he just lost the last memories of his parents. She was definitely made of stronger stuff than he was.

“I’m so sorry about your father, Princess,” Shiro spoke up from where he sat. “It hurts to lose them.” Keith crossed his arms at that and scooted away from Shiro, leaving a space between them.

Lance tried not to let the stab of jealousy that struck him when Allura sank down between the two of them, looking as content as she could, given the situation.

“We’re all sorry,” Hunk added, drawing Lance out of his head. He felt a bit ashamed that he felt so jealous of Allura all cuddled up beside Keith—and Shiro. Shiro was there too, of course.

Allura looked at them all, one by one, stopping to observe them. “Thank you. And I must thank you for doing such a good job while I was indisposed.” Her expression became firm. Determined. “My  _ real  _ father was a great man, and his dreams live on through us. Voltron is his legacy. And we will fight his enemies and free the universe.”

She was all fired up, and that was attractive as hell but also super terrifying. He was so relieved when Shiro put a hand on her shoulder. “I think everyone deserves some time to rest. I’ve been harsh as well over the past few days, and it was unfair of me. We all need some food and some time to rest” He eyed Keith across her. “Maybe a pod.” Keith scowled back.

The princess once again looked around at all of them before nodding in agreement. “Yes, that seems quite fair. It will give me time to catch up on everything.” She looked down at herself with a scowl. “Perhaps take a shower, if the systems aren’t all bungled.”

“I’ll take a look at them,” Coran assured her. “I think we’re in clear for now though, with the last of the infected data gone and the Galra crystal unplugged.” He looked towards Hunk and Pidge. “Perhaps you two would like to help me seal the crystal before you take a break?”

“Sure thing,” Hunk said with a nod of his head.

“I’d rather keep myself busy with things like that,” Pidge agreed, and the three of them (plus the egg, cause who knows, maybe it was listening, they didn’t know how alien eggs worked), all huddled in together to plan.

Keith, Allura, and Shiro were all speaking to one another quietly.

Lance felt really, really weird about the entire thing. It was like watching two groups work perfectly together, and he didn’t fit with either one of them.

Thank god he could go to his room to sleep without any guilt. Lance was so absolutely done with this entire day.

…

Hunk grunted as he helped Coran seal a giant, glass case around the crystal. Well, it looked like glass, though it seemed to be a bit stronger than that. He watched the sides seal together seamlessly, and looked back at Pidge. “Looking good from here. We’re almost done.”

She nodded her head from where she sat cross-legged, his egg protected from rolling away in the space created by her legs. Her eyes focused on the computer before her. “The programming looks solid. The crystal isn’t really active anymore now that it’s not plugged into anything, but if anything happens, the failsafes should be enough to warn us this time if something goes wrong.” She turned to Coran, a frown on her face. “We won’t be able to test this anymore.”

“I know,” Coran agreed. “Ideally, we’ll be able to take this somewhere and destroy it. Whatever the energy in the crystal is, it’s horrible with our equipment. Why, it wouldn’t surprise me if the whole castle blew up if Sendak actually flew away on Arus.” He paused. “Well, I imagine the lions would have ripped it apart in that case and flew away. The castle helps them heal and recharge quicker, but they don’t need it.”

“So why didn’t they do something when all this was going on?” Hunk asked, and felt Yellow’s presence brush against him. Now that he thought about it, that same feeling had been with him during the entire day, and the day before that, and the day before that. It was a presence that was always with him, even if he didn’t quite realize it. Oh, Yellow had been keeping an eye on him all day, hadn’t he? The same could probably be said for the others.

“Ripping it apart should really be a last resort,” Coran said, his voice still peppy, though Hunk was pretty sure he detected an air of sarcasm to it. “Once we’re done here you two should take some time and relax like the others. I even heard Shiro forbidding Keith from going to the training rooms.”

“That must be paining him more than his bruises,” Pidge toned in, causing Hunk to snort. “But honestly, I do find this kind of thing relaxing and fun.” She bit her lip and looked down sadly. “I got a glimpse of information about some prisoners, but it ended up being corrupted so I couldn’t use it. A lot of information was lost.” Her finger danced over the surface of the egg, tracing patterns to distract herself.

“Hey,” Hunk nudged her gently, “the universe may be big, but if Shiro can make his way back to Earth, and just happened to run into a team that fit the lions perfectly, anything is possible, right? You’ll find them.”

That prompted a smile to appear on her face. “Yeah, the statistics and the odds are high, but not impossible, and we can make them better.” Her expression softened. “Thank you, Hunk.”

He smiled warmly back at her. “Of course.” She really didn’t need to thank him. He knew they could find her family along the way, and Hunk learned long ago to trust his gut. He wasn’t often wrong.

…

Keith looked up, startled as the door slid open. His hand instinctively twitched towards the knife that he had already tucked under his pillow. Lance stood in the open doorway, hand held up as if he was about to knock, face clad in a green mask, looking just as startled as Keith felt.

“Sorry,” he squawked. “I thought there was a delay.”

Okay, so he didn’t just barge in on purpose, that was good. “What are you doing here?” Lance didn’t just come up to his door for no reason. Especially once he was doing his ridiculous nightly routine (that extended into a morning routine).

Lance scowled and crossed his arms. He looked so offended that it almost made Keith want to laugh. “Well I was going to check on you, Mr. Bruise. You have enough purple on you to mistake you for a Galra.”

Keith looked down at himself, grimacing a bit. He really didn’t want to go into a pod, as he always bruised easily but healed just as quickly. The mottled black and purple made him think of Allura’s insistence that he had Altean ancestry, but the knife only a couple feet away seemed to imply something else, something worse.

Lance must have taken his grimace as one of pain (though, to be fair, he was stiff and sore). “Good lord, are you even doing anything to help?” He shook his head and uncrossed his arms. That was when Keith saw he had what looked like bandages in one hand, and a bottle of something in another. “Here, let me help you put it on, McStabby. I know you’ll probably just tough it out.”

He wasn’t wrong. Keith almost expected him to just barge over to him and slap everything onto the bruises, but instead, he seemed to be waiting. If he was honest, Keith was kind of curious about where this was going to go, so he nodded his head.

“Alright, shirt off then. You’ll have to do your legs though. I found this cream that Alteans use to help with their bruises, and they have crazy skin, so I thought it might help you, since you’re a heathen and all.”

“I didn’t get hit on my legs,” Keith admitted almost airily, as he slowly peeled off of his shirt, a bit embarrassed about this entire thing and kind of wondering why it was happening at all.

Lance inhaled sharply. “Shit man, I didn’t think it was that bad. Do you like, need to get checked for internal bleeding or something?”

“No.” He flushed and ducked his head slightly, almost hiding behind his bangs. “Red scanned me earlier.” She’d been very unimpressed, admitting that she didn’t reach out to him during that fight because she probably would have torn through the ship out of anger. Keith could forgive her.

“Arm,” Lance demanded, and Keith held it up since that was where it was worse, though the Gladiator got a few good hits in on his chest and back too. Lance smoothed his hand over the bruised part of his skin, making sure the strange Altean cream was spread over it properly.

Keith’s arm twitched under his hand, and he kind of felt like his skin was on fire. Lance paused, brow furrowing as he stared at him. “Does it hurt? I used to do something like this for Hunk, and for my siblings too and normally I don’t hurt them...”

“Sort of,” Keith admitted hesitantly. “But it’s not from the bruises…I just…outside of fights, people don’t touch me. I’m not used to it.” He must have said something wrong, because Lance went silent, and that was never a good thing. His motions became more gentle and methodical though, pausing whenever Keith responded too much.

Once he was done, he placed the end of the Altean bandages on his arm, they both watched it move and spread to cover the area.

“That is so creepy,” Lance muttered.

“No kidding,” Keith agreed, because it really, really was. If Altean war machines had a mind of their own, why couldn’t Altean bandages? He was about to pose this question to Lance, but thought back over the rest of the day. He didn’t want to freak him out more. “Are  _ you _ okay?”

“Me?” Lance laughed obnoxiously and waved his hand. “Of  _ course _ I am. I only almost died three times today. It’s a good day for me.”

Keith squinted at him.

“Whatever,” Lance huffed when he apparently didn’t get whatever reaction he was looking for. “You know how it is.” He stood up and wiped his hand on the robe he was wearing. His lips parted as if he was about to ask something else, but stopped himself.

Why was Lance being so quiet? It wasn’t him. He could be an annoying little shit, but it was actually worrying how silent he was being. Keith tilted his head.

“Uh, nothing.” Lance quickly looked away, cheeks pink. “Just…don’t do anything stupid and actually listen to someone and relax for once, no training deck.”

If Keith didn’t know any better, he would have swore that Lance was worried about him. “Didn’t plan on it.” He was done with training for the day. Generally speaking, Keith loved the thrill that came with it, but he just wanted to sleep.

“Well, good.” He turned to leave, and Keith felt the strong urge to stop him to get him to wait for just a minute because he had things to say to him too after the day they had.

“Lance? Thanks,” he blurted out like the completely swave person he was. His brain sucked some days.

That made Lance pause at the door. “Yeah, well, you  _ should _ thank me.” The door opened, but he didn’t go through it yet. He didn’t look back either, so Keith didn’t know what to expect. “And uh, you know, thanks for dragging me back onto the ship and things.” (Like not making fun of him for believing in ghosts like everyone else would have.)

“Yeah,” Keith answered. Lance looked like he was about to say something else when the door closed on him. He yelped, and Keith laughed, hard. Tears welled in his eyes as Lance struggled with the door, cursing in both English and Spanish at it. Keith laughed so hard that he was having a hard time breathing and everything hurt.

The door finally opened again and Lance groaned. “You’re a jerk. I can’t believe you didn’t help me. I thought we were having a bonding moment.”

Keith froze and eyed Lance. He wasn’t injured, and he was pretty sure that he wasn’t actually mad. So he flopped back on his bed, placed his hand under his head and said, “Don’t recall. Didn’t happen.”

Lance’s face turned red, and then he turned around with a dramatic flair to his robes. “Oh, you jerk.” He stormed away in such a theatrical way that Keith wasn’t worried about another fight or anything.

He laughed and flopped back onto his pillow, a warm feeling in his chest. It was nice to know that someone was willing to check up on him, and that everything they experience from that day wasn’t being ignored. Maybe that day wasn’t too bad after all.

…

Shiro sat beside Allura, who silently joined him in one of the observation rooms once again. He came there to relax a little bit, since they actually decided to stop moving for once and could see the stars and the nebulas that they normally passed while speeding through space too quickly for light to reach them properly. She seemed so off earlier that he invited her to come and just sit with him for a bit.

She had a little box in her hand that she slowly opened. A light turned on, an image glowing of a man and a woman, a sweet tune playing in a strange instrument that he couldn’t quite place in any musical category he knew.

“Your parents,” Shiro noted as he stared at them. Alfor looked much younger than the AI had. “You look like your mother.”

Allura laughed at that. “Most people say I look like my father. With his eyes and lighter skin.”

“Maybe,” he agreed, “but you look like your mother outside of that.”

“She passed when I was young from a horrible disease that sapped her quintessence out with no way to stop it,” Allura explained as she ran her finger over the image and the little figures starting dancing. “My father got me this so I wouldn’t forget her. An illness stole one parent, and the other died from something horrible that they were trying to prevent.”

Shiro started a bit at that description as she met his gaze. “I guess we’re not so different in that respect, are we?”

She shook her head and stared at them sadly. “I don’t remember my mother much, I was only 50 when she passed, but father…” Allura took a deep breath. “Does it ever stop?”

It took Shiro a moment to realize what she was talking about. He frowned a bit and looked at the music box. He wished he had something like that of them. He did bring a digital picture album with him on the Kerberos mission, but that was long gone now. “Do you ever stop missing them? No, but the pain, the resentment, and the anger do eventually fade, and you can cherish the good memories you have.”

Allura nodded, and seemed to take his words to heart. She tilted her head up to look at him, a strangely soft expression on her face. “I admit, I was a bit wary about all of you at first, but you’ve all been doing so well while I was indisposed. But what Coran told me…Shiro, what happened on Bataria? He said you were a bit…intense since coming back. Pushing everyone like I originally did.”

He felt properly shamed by the light prodding. Looking back over the past couple of days, what was he thinking, pushing them so hard? Well, he knew what he was thinking. That they were kids and they were dragged into this, and he had to get them ready. He had to make sure that they’d be okay for when he reached that blackness he saw in his future. “I saw things on Bataria. Everyone had a challenge, and mine happened to involve a lot of hallucinations. I pushed them too hard after that.”

“We sometimes do irrational things out of fear,” Allura acknowledged. “Surely they would understand if you told them about what you fear?”

“I don’t want to do that to them right now. I just need to make sure that they’ll be okay when the time comes.” Because he knew it was coming. Shiro had always known that he was living on borrowed time (though it was unsaid, he knew that the medicine he was given was supposed to be his mother’s since his doctor didn’t want him to have any kind of other drugs), and that it was ticking down. “Allura, I know it’s a lot to ask, but when I do go, please take care of them? They’re wild and crazy, and annoying at times, but be patient. Pidge has lost so much already. Lance and Hunk are both being so strong but they really miss home. Keith…well…he won’t take it well at all. He’ll probably lash out or try to run. It’s what he does when things become too much. Hold onto them.”

“I’m  _ going _ to find a way to help you,” she said almost viciously, eyes flashing with fire. “I won’t give up. But of course I’ll take care of them. They’re my Paladins.” Shiro could see and hear the honesty. “And you are too.”

Shiro couldn’t help but smile at that, and couldn’t figure out why tears prickled at the corner of his eyes. Instead of letting them loose, he held up his arm, and said, “I think, maybe, we both need a hug.”

Allura let out a watery laugh and folded into his side. If they both cried up a little, no one else had to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small reminder: I'm experimenting a little bit with my writing, in this case the use of POV in a themeatic way. There are times (most notably when they're Voltron) when the POV transitions without warning from one person to the next. This is to actually show their bonds and connections at work, how they're more like one person than five individuals in those moments. I tested that idea out here too.
> 
> I find that sometimes it also helps to keep people in the scene, as opposed to a bunch of paragraph breaks. 
> 
> Let me know what you think of this chapter! We're heading towards the end of this story, and I can't wait to show you how this is all going to go down.
> 
> All my socials:  
> [Tumblr](https://storiesbeyondthestars.tumblr.com/) |[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storiesbeyondthestars/) |[Stellar Sierras Instragram ](https://www.instagram.com/stellarsierras/) |[Twitter](https://twitter.com/storiesbeyond1)
> 
> Story betaed by: [Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon/pseuds/Silvamoon)
> 
> We'll see you next month for the next chapter, and it's going to be a super fun one!


	14. Collection and Extraction

Training after Allura got back up on her feet was  _ brutal _ . Apparently she wanted to make up for lost time, and wanted to see for herself how they were doing, and that meant putting them through their paces almost as maddeningly as she had back on Arus. It even had Shiro insisting that they  _ needed _ a break, and he was all about staying in tip-top shape for the mission.

Once the Princess reluctantly agreed (swayed by Coran pointing out that there were also other things that they needed to be doing, including trying to figure out how to safely access information from Sendak’s memory and the Galra crystal they still had with them), everyone dispersed. It wasn’t a full-day break, since they had other things to do later, but even a small rest was still much appreciated.

That said, Allura herself still felt the need to do something, and that was how she found herself in her current position.

She breathed heavily, allowing sweat to slide down her face as her fingers gripped her staff tighter. She adjusted her footing as she stared at her opponent, dressed in the same strange, but oddly comfortable Earthling clothing that Shiro got Coran to create using the more advanced features of the clothing replicator. He claimed that it was better for people to work out and exercise in what he called ‘leg-ins’ (which seemed redundant to her, because legs were always in pants). Her battle suit was made for fluid movement, as was the lightweight black armour the Paladins wore, but this was nice too.

It was also nice just to wear something else, and to get a little glimpse into the Earthlings too. She was an Altean, an explorer with a thirst for knowledge by birth, so of course she was curious and wanted to know more about her Paladins. One thing she could say with ease was that they were strong and fast.

Or at least, Keith was strong and fast. His defiant violet gaze met hers as they circled one another, staffs in hand. He was sweating just as much as she was, having tied up his hair off of the nape of his neck a little while ago, but was no less focused.

He attacked first, and Allura moved to fight back. Perhaps Keith wasn’t the best example, since he did have Altean heritage somewhere in his family. (He wasn’t too keen on having tests done, and Coran wouldn't listen to her requests to perform them for her either, for some reason.) Shiro had strength and speed though too.

Then again, the Galra altered him with their strange experiments, so probably not the best example either. She’d have to check with the other three. Maybe not Lance, he’d probably like that too much.

Keith jumped out of the way, and she had to admit, his speed impressed her. At first, Allura assumed he’d just use brute force – it was easy to see that he was impulsive. The more she sparred with him, the more she realized that wasn’t the case. His strikes were calculated and smart, never exerting himself if he didn’t need to. Strategy in the middle of battle was different from strategizing over maps and long term planning. Both were needed in life and war, and very few people were good at both (Shiro was an example, and that was one of the things Black no doubt saw in him).

A surprised shriek escaped her lips as Keith managed to trip her up. She stumbled, but while in motion, she grabbed him and tossed him over her shoulder, they crashed into the ground in a heap.

“I don’t know whether I should be impressed, or worried,” Shiro’s voice carried over to them. He walked over, in the same clothing that both she and Keith were wearing, strong features eyeing them warily. “Should you even be sparring yet, Princess?”

She waved him off. “I’ve been resting for far too long.” Not to mention this wasn’t the first time that she and Keith met up to spar. It started light, but as he realized that she was okay, he started to take it more seriously. Allura liked that. Yes, she was trained, but people still tended to treat her like she was a delicate juniberry flower. He didn’t. Bless his blunt personality.

“Did you  _ not _ just see her toss me over her shoulder?” Keith groaned as he pushed himself up. “She’s fine.”

Allura snorted ungracefully. “You’re just light. Alteans are strong, but it’s not like we have super strength or anything.” She paused in thought. “Well, we can get momentary bursts fueled by our inner quintessence during heightened emotions, but humans are just so…fragile.”

“We are,” Shiro agreed as he helped Keith off of the floor, who was grumbling about not being light. “Coran’s looking for you.”

“Quiznak, he’s such a mother guinopea,” Allura moaned as she straightened herself out. “I best get freshened up and away from here before he catches me. Training. In my own castle. Days after I was proclaimed healthy again.” That’s right, it was  _ her _ castle, wasn’t it? Even if it felt like the castleship really belonged to Coran’s family more than her own.

“He’s just worried,” Shiro interrupted her thoughts, his brow furrowing. “He does mean well, so don’t hold it against him if he’s a bit smothering.”

Wasn’t that very true? She and Coran only had each other now. Along with the mice, they were all that was left from Altea (well, she supposed the lions counted too, but they didn’t communicate with her like the mice and Coran did). She huffed in minor agreement, because she knew she couldn’t, as Shiro put it, hold it against Coran. “Still, best to not give him a reason to stop me.”

“Pidge was checking to see if she could get anything from Sendak’s AI without destroying everything again,” he said, his tone making a suggestion that he didn’t voice out loud. Still, Allura perked up at that. Shiro knew she wanted to be busy, useful, and he was giving her something to actually do. In the same vein, it was likely what Keith was doing as well (plus the extra training was a bonus, something the other three could use more often).

“I’ll check in with her after I freshen up.” She turned her attention towards Keith. “Same time tomorrow?”

“I won’t let you toss me again,” he warned her, a competitive sheen passing across his eyes.

She chuckled. One thing Allura was sure of was that Keith _ thrived _ on competition. “We’ll see. Perhaps put on some more muscle and I won’t be able to.”

Shiro’s laugh and Keith’s protests followed her out of the room. It was nice to talk to the other Paladins. She was starting to think that they were all truly bonding and understanding one another.

…

Pidge’s lab was her sanctuary. Her room was too barren at the moment (she’d have to start picking up items from planets to fill up the void), but her lab, it was something else altogether. Lance called it a mess when he stopped by earlier, but what did he know? It wasn’t a mess, it was perfect. Organized chaos was the word Matt used to use for it, which pretty much described her family as a whole.

It was her place to go to think, to fiddle with amazing alien tech, to work at finding her family with no impediments or judgement. Not that she had a ton of information to work with right now, though she was certainly trying.

Now though, her sanctuary had been invaded, and there wasn’t a single thing that she could do about it.

“Are you quite sure you can’t get anything else from the AI right now?”

In a blind moment of rage, Pidge considered launching her laptop across the room and screaming. Was she sure that there was nothing she could currently get off of what remained of Sendak’s quarantined AI? Well, no. The problem was that the second they tried to access it with any of the other more advanced technology, the AI attempted to attack it. There was the huge risk of it taking over the castle again. Which was something she had explained to everyone already. Keith and Lance had nodded along with her, and if they could get it, there was absolutely no reason a  _ princess  _ from a highly advanced alien race couldn’t grasp the concept. Was she sure? She only spent the last however long (she lost track at some point and time was relative anyway) trying to figure out how to do just that.

“Yes,  _ Allura _ ,” she hissed at her, hunching over the laptop as the Princess’s fingers twitched as if she was going to take it to look herself. “We’re not getting into Sendak’s brain without ruining the tech we have.” She hadn’t gone through the data that she retrieved before everything went bonkers, which mostly was limited to prisoner and shipment information, so there was that.

Allura’s lips pursed as her brow furrowed. “Surely Galra technology hasn’t outgrown anything Altea could do. There must be a way.”

Pidge snorted as she opened her computer again, scooting away from her slightly. “Hate to break it to you, Princess, but I think that their actual technology vastly surpasses Altean tech at this point. They’ve had 5,000 decaphobes to advance, even if it wasn’t in the same way or with the same things Altea did. The one advantage we have is your quintessence manipulation.” She nodded towards the quarantined crystal in her lab. “Judging from the power source alone, that’s something they’ve never quite figured out.”

The Princess crossed her arms and scowled, her expression fierce. “The Galra are a  _ vile _ race who value nothing but theft and fighting. Their technology has not outgrown ours. It’s impossible. Perhaps I should get Coran to look over everything. It might be beyond human comprehension.”

See, the thing was, Pidge was still kind of in awe of Allura. There was one part of her that still lived for dresses and envied Allura’s long locks. A part that adored fairy tales and couldn’t believe that there was a real-life, magical princess in front of her. However, the largest part of Pidge had been disillusioned for a while. Allura was bossy, and pushy, and not just in ‘being a good leader’ kind of way. Despite the fact that she had technically been alive much longer, her youth shone through. Not that Allura wasn’t a great diplomat, or an awesome person in general. She was both of those things. She just wasn’t perfect, and at the moment, the not-perfect Princess was driving Pidge up the wall.

“Allura!” They both jumped as Hunk swept into the room without a care in the world. “You said something about wanting to see the egg? And having information about it?”

“Well, yes, but I’m a tad busy right now,” she replied with a slight shift in her stance.

“I’m going to look through stuff and will let you know if I find anything,” Pidge insisted, jumping on the chance to send Allura away for a bit.

“See, Pidge has this,” Hunk added, and motioned towards the door. “We’re just going across the hall anyway.”

“Alright,” Allura agreed after a moment of hesitation. “Be sure to keep us up to date, Pidge.”

“Will do.” She saluted, relieved as Allura followed Hunk out of the room. He twisted around and winked at her before leaving, nearly causing Pidge to choke on her own spit. Hunk had done that on purpose to get her away!

It was official, he had replaced Shiro as her favourite person on the castleship for now.

…

“My father mentioned these creatures in his journal,” Allura said as she carefully rotated the egg in her hand. It looked like she was holding a massive jewel, which really seemed to fit her, being a princess and all. She seemed completely fascinated by the egg that Hunk had been gifted in a bid to protect it. “Though he mentioned that the servants often showed a desire to hunt them and take them from the Elder People.”

The Elder People, that seemed right to Hunk. The turtle-like people he met did have an air of wisdom about them, especially since they lived so peacefully with the Galra.

“Allura,” he said cautiously. “I heard a bit what Pidge was saying, and I have to ask, how much do we know about the Galra?”

“The Galra are a vile race,” she said once again, her voice firm and without any hesitation. “Their violence is built into their DNA. Not a single one of them are to be trusted under any circumstances.”

Okay, he already knew that wasn’t true from experience alone. Not only that, but he didn’t think that anything was purely evil or bad by nature. Well, okay, for things in the middle to exist, the two extremes had to exist too, but they were rare, and he was pretty sure the Galra actually didn’t fall under that, but he didn’t want to get on Allura’s bad side right now. “I mean, sure, but the last time you interacted with them was 5000 ye—decaphoebes ago, right? Entire cultures have risen and disappeared on Earth in that time span. What do we know about the Galra that exist  _ right now _ ?” He knew that she didn’t have an answer, but that didn’t matter. “Like, Lance was saying that Coran told him that Galra notoriously have a hard time having babies? Like, one and done because childbirth for them is awful? That doesn’t seem like it’d fit a species that took over the known universe. They’d need to have a really high population, so what’s up with that? And where do they stay? If it was only colonies or something, most of them would have like, blended with the local populations by now.” He paused and blinked. “Sorry, rambled a bit.”

Allura frowned as she stared down at the egg in her hand. “Those…are quite good questions.” Her agreement was reluctant.

“What we need more than anything else is more information,” Hunk insisted now that he managed to get through to her. She was always talking about making allies and finding a target, but what good was that if their information was outdated? Seemed well intentioned, but a little brash. A very Keith-esque thing to do. “Sendak’s AI would be great, but we can’t really use it, so we need to think of something else, right? We can’t just keep relying on old data for things. Even if it’s a good place to start, like with this little guy.” He motioned to the egg.

Her shoulders slumped slightly as she sat down beside him. At that moment, she looked almost small. “I suppose there is some validity to that. What we know is so outdated and useless.”

At her obvious frustration, he shook his head. “Not entirely. Some things you said about this little guy seem right. I think that because the other guys hunted all these eggs, the Elder People gave it to me to protect. That world changed a lot, but some things seem the same. Some things are worth holding onto even over thousands of years. Decaphobes. You know what I mean.”

With a slow movement, Allura nodded her head. “Yes, I suppose I do understand. It’s just…” She reached up and pressed her fingerpads to the marks on her face. “Do you know what these are, Hunk?” He shook his head, but she seemed to understand that. “Stories say that our ancestors were rewarded with the ability to manipulate quintessence by the ancients. A reward for our kindness, helpfulness, and willingness to put others before ourselves. When the ancients touched our ancestors to give them the gift that would be passed down, their touch left these marks. They are a sign of our power. Those who abuse quintessence have unsightly lines and blemishes to their marks, a sign of what they’ve done. All depictions of Altean society have these marks, have had the technology that we use now. Our people perfected it long, long ago.”

It took Hunk a moment to piece together exactly what she was trying to say, and on one hand it startled him a little. On the other it made complete sense with what he already knew about Alteans. They were a species that didn’t change much. They explored the universe, but only observed, and reported. He was sure that they weren’t a bad people, just not one that altered themselves too much. One that had probably been vastly more advanced than others for a very long time.

So suddenly waking up and the universe being so different must have been even more of a culture shock than Hunk thought it was.

He frowned at her. “A lot has changed and we have to embrace it, but not everything has to.” Hunk motioned towards the egg. “This seems to be the same.”

A sad smile crossed Allura’s lips. “My father theorized that one group saw those eggs as a religious symbol, the other a delicacy.” Her smile turned more genuine as the sadness faded. “The fact that they chose you to take care of this says a lot.”

“Do you know anything about them? Like, what exactly hatches from it?” Hunk looked at the egg. It didn’t feel cold or lifeless, but rather warm and like it was humming or filled with energy. It was so very clearly alive. He knew that it was a completely natural thing for one species to eat another one, especially things like eggs, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

“I do know that they appear to have average intelligence for a reptilian creature,” she answered, and Hunk had to wonder what those words were in Altean before they were translated, because it’d probably be fascinating. “They need vegetation and a constant source of water.”

“That could be a problem,” Hunk worried. At least he wasn’t going to have a hyper-smart turtle around. It’d be nice to have something relatively normal around for a change. Grounding, really.

She perked up at that. “Oh, not at all. We have a deck where we can create many habitats and gardens for livestock, pets, and growing vegetation if need be. We could customize it to the appropriate temperature. It may even hatch faster in a conducive environment.”

“Really?” Hunk’s eyes widened in excitement. “I know we have stuff to do, but could you show me?”

“Everyone else seems relatively busy,” Allura agreed. “Come, it’s quite a far walk from here.”

Hunk almost groaned, but he had to ask, “Altean far, or normal far?”

“I—I’m sorry?” Allura’s eyebrows shot up.

He shrugged as he balanced the egg in his arms as they started to walk. “I mean, yeah. Like…when we left Earth, Blue got to a moon called Kerberos in like five seconds. It normally takes us months to get out there. She didn’t use a wormhole or anything. Now that I think about it though, she’s never gone quite that fast since. Anyway, Pidge and I calculated it, and we were going faster than the speed of light. Meaning, far away probably doesn’t seem that far for Alteans, right?” At her confused expression, he told her exact how fast Blue flew. 

“That’s…not possible. The lions don’t move that quickly.” She seemed genuinely confused. “They alter how fast they move according to the environments around them so that they cause as little damage as possible while moving. Most ships do, otherwise they’d get wrecked quite easily. I’ve never heard of the lions moving  _ that _ quickly though. And all without using the wormhole.”

Oh, that was right, the lions all only had one wormhole each for whatever reason. Sucks that most of them had been used up at this point. “I dunno what to tell you. That’s what Blue did.”

“Adrenaline?” she suggested with a helpless shrug.

“They’re mechanical lions,” Hunk pointed out, but then paused as he really thought about what they knew about the lions. “Holy crap, magical adrenaline boost. Can the castle do that?”

“No. That’s why we use wormholes.” She launched into an explanation of how the castle worked, and Hunk was completely enthralled in the story, not noticing how long they were walking. Altean alchemy apparently had many branches, and there was one based in engineering (like how the lions were created). It was completely alien, but also completely fascinating.

It was nice to hear her talk about something that she was clearly interested in as opposed to more “business” related things. It reminded him that, in her species’ development, she wasn’t that much older than he was.

Finally, they reached the room in question. Allura pushed the door open, and he looked inside, eager to see what the Alteans used as habitats for animals. He found himself really disappointed that it was just a large, steel room. “Uhh…no offense, but I don’t think this fits a sacred turtle.”

Allura laughed, her voice echoing. “No. Of course not.” She tapped a few buttons on the wall, and a screen popped up. “We have to program it. We could make it perfect for hatching conditions so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“Could we put a motion sensor so I know when it hatches?” If Hunk could leave it in an environment it would be comfortable in, that was what he wanted to do. That said, he still wanted to make sure that it would be okay.

“When I was young, I wanted to have all kinds of pets,” Allura said wistfully. “I would make plans for different animals, and come in here and program them. Coran caught me when I tried to make a spot for a kuridon.” She projected a picture that looked like an angelfish met a plesiosaur. “Blatyz’s son had one, so I insisted that I needed one as well. Our rooms, unfortunately, aren’t made to handle something so big. I got water everywhere.” Hunk couldn’t help but laugh along with her.

“Oh man, what did Coran say?”

“It looks like someone’s been into a tribble of trouble. Come help me clean this up, Princess.” Allura mimicked Coran’s tone so well that it was almost scary.

The implication of that absolutely tickled Hunk. “He made you clean it up?”

“He helped, but yes.” Allura laughed again. “Coran’s been a part of my life longer than my mother, and in many ways he was there more than my father too. Though it annoyed me at the time, I’m thankful he did things like that. It was beneficial for me to get my hands dirty, so to speak. My father was quite overprotective, and preferred I stick with purely magical aspects of alchemy, and my books.” She sighed and shook her head as she worked on programming the room. “Tell me, have you ever done something like that?”

It didn’t take long for a story to come to mind. “Oh man, my younger sister, Talia, has always wanted a turtle, so she’d be super excited right now. She found one last summer and snuck it home with my little brother, Eli’s help. Of course they came to me to try and make a tank, figuring that if it was made, Tinā and Tamā would have to let them keep it. Aleki, that’s my older brother, helped me make it, but we messed up and got sand and water  _ everywhere _ .”

“You have so many siblings,” Allura said, sounding completely boggled by that. “Altean children are born in clusters, so to speak, but families generally only have one child each. To have…how many was that? Five siblings? Is amazing.”

“There are five of us, including me, but I didn’t mention my older sister. She’s the oldest. Sam…well that’s what we call her, her name’s Samaria, Aleki, me, Eli, and Talia.”

“Who are tina and tama?” She pronounced the words completely wrong, so the translator must have sent it through as unique names as opposed to a direct translation. That was interesting.

“That’s what I call my mother and father where I’m from,” Hunk explained. “On Earth we have a lot of different cultures and languages. I actually think most of us here can speak more than one language. But anyway, yeah. There are five of us. Lance’s family has five kids too, but he’s the youngest.”

“Is that common?” she questioned curiously, the researcher in her shining through.

“It’s personal preference,” he answered with a small shrug. “My parents wanted a big family and we were all planned. Some families it just happens. Some only have one.”

“Fascinating, you seem like such a varied species. There are other planets like that as well, but there are even more where there is a singular species with the same culture across a planet. I find both very interesting.” She pressed another button, and the room around them came to life. Rocks, a pond, and vegetation appeared in their surroundings, and a sky appeared above them. “Life is fascinating.”

Hunk stared in awe at the room around him. He couldn’t agree more.

…

Life was  _ boring _ , in Lance’s opinion. He would have thought that exploring space would be exciting, even more so on an alien ship, but turned out there was a lot of routine. Don’t get him wrong, with no actual day and night, it was good to have a scheduled time they needed to be up by, and training was actually doing wonders for him, if he was to say so.

Lance just missed spontaneity. He missed being able to sneak away to go out and maybe use a fake ID he got to get into a bar. Being a nice boy didn’t mean that he was a saint or anything. He just wanted to have a little bit of fun.

Not only that, but sometimes he was just lonely. With only seven people in a giant castle, sometimes it was easy to wander around and not see anyone for hours. Lance didn’t really like that, especially not after the castle went topsy-turvy. Though all that was linked to Sendak’s AI, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that there were ghosts here. It might have been stupid of him, but he truly believed that. So his wandering tended to be in high traffic areas, which meant he often got swept up into Coran’s chores since he ‘had nothing else to contribute’.

Avoiding Coran led him to the training deck. He really didn’t want to train or anything like that when they  _ finally _ got a break, but the noises inside drew his curiosity because it was very clearly smack talk.

He walked into the room, and promptly stumbled over his own feet, ungracefully toppling onto the floor. His face exploded with heat as he heard Shiro say, “You okay there, Lance?”

“Peachy keen,” he replied, giving a thumbs up while keeping his face flat on the ground. “Tripped over one of the mice.” That was a blatant lie, but there was no way Shiro, or Keith for that matter, would call him out. They were clearly too busy.

Lance looked back up to meet Shiro’s amused gaze. Keith on the other hand was still facing the floor. Both wore the workout uniforms consisting of tanks and fitted sweatpants, which put their arms on clear display as they both strained to keep up their body weight, because for whatever reason, they were both  _ planking _ .

He was suddenly very embarrassed of his noodle arms, because Shiro was a certified  _ beefcake _ , and despite the fact that he looked like a skinny bean in his jacket, Keith’s arms were made of compact muscles that were also nice to look at.

Not that he was looking at  _ either _ of them. Nope. Not at all.

“So uhh…” He trailed off, not quite knowing what to say as he got back up. “Whatcha doing?” Cause that wasn’t obvious. Smooth as crunchy peanut butter, Lancey-Lance.

“Seeing who can go the longest,” Shiro answered cheerfully. “Keith’s struggling.”

“ _ Fuck _ you,” Keith growled at him, voice definitely more strained. “You have a  _ mechanical arm _ that you can probably put all your body weight on.”

“I guess you would say I do have an unfair  _ hand _ icap.”

Keith groaned in pure and utter betrayal that Lance felt to his very soul. He loved a jab or two, but puns, god puns were awful. Shiro snickered, and he was suddenly taken back to the moments that his older siblings acted like this towards him. How could he not come to the aid of another younger brother being tormented at the hands of his older one?

“Keith’s right, that’s not fair. I can help even the odds.” For a moment, Lance forgot that Shiro was their leader and his hero. He kind of just moved without thinking of the consequences. That was how he ended up sitting on his very nicely muscled back. Was there even an ounce of flab on this man?

“Lance!” Shiro wobbled under the weight, falling to the ground. Lance was quick to scramble off of Shiro, trying not to show just how mortified he was at his own actions. What the  _ cheese _ had he done? He just came into the room and  _ sat _ on Shiro. What the hell was wrong with him?

Keith let out a loud cackle in response as he let himself flop over a moment later. Shiro kicked his legs at him, but he rolled out of the way and sat back up, wiping the sweat out of his eyes. Lance watched a little trail down his neck before quickly looking away.

“I hate you both,” Shiro groaned as he flopped onto the ground, no malice in his voice. “You’re awful, terribly children, doing this to your father. Picking on a cripple, you should be ashamed of yourself.”

Lance mulled over the fact that Shiro was basically admitting to being their space dad, while Keith did what came naturally to younger brothers and egged on the situation. “You’re just bitter because you couldn’t cheat anymore.”

“And  _ that _ wasn’t cheating?” Shiro pointed an accusatory, metal finger in Lance’s direction.

“Never said it wasn’t. If you can cheat so can I. Least I can admit it, Captain America.”

“Listen here you little shit—”

“Ladies, ladies, you’re both pretty,” Lance said, clapping his hands together to break it up, as amusing as it was to watch. At the same time it pulled at his stomach, because it was exactly how he interacted with Marco, and Rachel to an extent.

Keith looked like he was about to snap back at him, but then a positively devious smirk that Lance did not at all like spread across his lips. “Glad you noticed.”

Shiro snorted and Lance spluttered. “I—you weren’t—whatever! You were so going to fall over, and would have lost without my help.”

With narrowed eyes Keith pushed his body weight off of the ground again, holding it up on his arms briefly before settling down. “I have awesome core control and arm strength. What about you?”

The edge of challenge to his tone wasn’t at all lost on him. He narrowed his eyes in return. “I did gymnastics! Also aerials because Rachel wanted to do it and didn’t want to go alone. The joke was on her, because I was better at it than she was.”

“Really?” Keith lost his competitive edge for a moment, genuinely impressed.

That startled Lance slightly but then he remembered a very important detail. “Oh yeah, that’s right, you did dance, didn’t you?” For some reason he didn’t at all want to picture that. “I still don’t believe that. Bust out a move or something then.”

Keith snorted and looked over at Shiro, who looked purely amused at everything happening. “No music. Besides, we’re talking  _ strength _ , not technique. Why don’t you show us what you got, if you’re not all talk?”

So  _ that _ ’s how he wanted to play it, huh? Lance shrugged off his jacket. “Bring it. I bet I can plank longer than you.”

The competitive look was back, and Keith looked over at Shiro. “Time us!”

Shiro looked up towards the ceiling for a moment and shook his head. He was smiling by the time he turned his attention back to them. “Alright, you guys ready? Need to change, Lance?”

“Nah, I’m good.” If he left he might get swept up in Coran’s chores, and this was so much more entertaining. “Let’s do this.” He looked at Keith. “Try not to fall over from my awesomeness.”

“You mean like you did earlier.” Oh that little fucker. He sounded far too smug and that needed to go.

Lance swore that he heard Shiro mutter something along the lines of, “What the fuck kind of flirting…” He shook his head and spoke more clearly. “Alright, ready?”

Lance met Keith’s gaze, and they both put their hands on the ground and pushed off. Yeah, this was  _ way _ better than chores.

…

These new Paladins were so different from the ones that Coran used to know once upon a time. All of them, including Shiro, were just so young. In a way, it reminded him of the worldly leaders that had worked together since a young age, only to form Voltron later on in life. In a sense it was nice to see just how vibrant they were, how much  _ life _ they had in them. Not even Shiro was completely jaded. Coran had found him nearly in tears as he laughed at Keith and Lance, who appeared to be having a competition on who could do a headstand longer (though it hardly seemed to be a proper headstand, since they were on their arms and not balancing on their heads as Alteans were trained to do).

It was good, because their life and vibrance brought out the good in him, in Allura. She’d been helping Hunk situate the egg in one of the environmental rooms where it would be safe, eagerly talking to him about how rooms like that functioned. It was nice to see her so happy and focused on something other than the bleak reality of the war.

It was a reality though, and they all needed to come back to it. When Pidge came to him and said that she found something, he knew it was his duty to find everyone. Sure, he could have called them, but he needed to stretch his old leg bones out. He’d been sitting for far too long.

He managed to get them all to the command deck easily enough. Getting them to focus was another task entirely, since most of them were a little riled up about other things. That was okay though, because there was nothing  _ immediately _ urgent happening. A quick look outside showed just how quiet and empty everything was. They were traveling too quickly for light to get in, so all one could see when they looked outside was blackness. It was why they projected artificial galaxies over the view rooms, usually with the most magnificent images of the galaxy they were currently in (unless they weren’t moving, of course).

There was no time to stop though. They needed to keep moving forward. They needed more data and information. He’d patiently listened while Pidge manically ranted about the importance of information and breaking codes.

Her safe system to look into Sendak’s AI and retrieve pure data readings and nothing malicious was simply an idea for now, meaning all of that highly valuable information was just out of their reach. Coran fully believed that they’d be able to see it someday though. Pidge was too sharp to let it slip away. Not long ago he caught her looking at the coding of Shiro’s arm, and when she realized he was watching, she simply said ‘just in case’. Whatever that meant.

She was an intensely bright Earthling, and Coran was more than impressed with her. Especially since she was able to bring up some information. Not from Sendak, but rather information she retrieved before the corruption occurred.

“I’ve only been able to get small, isolated blips of data,” Pidge said after everyone calmed down a bit, sitting calmly at her station. “I thought I was getting data on prisoner movements, but this looks like physical shipments. They mention a few different shipping stations.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “That’s…something to work with. Could you use it to make a map of sorts? We don’t even know how far the Empire is spread.”

“Who needs a map?” Lance groaned. “After 5,000 years—sorry—decaphobes—of conquering, I could probably fire my bayard at any random point in space and hit a Galra ship." He motioned wildly with his bayard in hand. Keith looked ready to argue, but then stopped and shrugged in mild agreement.

“A map might be a good thing,” Shiro noted as he crossed his arms in front of him. “Shipping stations might be good too. Finding troop locations or supply routes, really any small targets we could hit and run would benefit us.”

“Shouldn’t we go for a big kaboom or something?” Lance asked, sounding a little bit put out. “You know, make a big splash that Voltron’s here and back in action? We’ve freed a few worlds now. Or at least talked to them.”

“Zarkon’s been building his empire for 5,000 years. That’s a nearly incomprehensible amount of time,” Shiro noted, even though years to decaphobes wasn’t a direct match like that. Coran, Pidge, and Hunk had worked it out. That wasn’t the point though, so Coran didn’t bring it up. “We’re not going to tear this thing down overnight. We need to slowly chip away at the foundations, which is resources and troops. Hitting Zarkon where he lives would be a huge mistake.”

“Which, we don’t even know where that is,” Hunk pointed out.

“That is true,” Coran agreed. “Daibazaal’s been gone for a very long time.”

“Not just that,” Allura said slowly, having been watching the screens over Pidge’s shoulder. “As Hunk and Pidge reminded me earlier, the Galra have had 5,000 decaphobes to change and grow. They might not be what we remember. I—we do need more information. That is key to bringing down Zarkon.” She looked almost pinched having to say that. Coran knew she would love nothing more than to bust down Zarkon’s door and chop his head off with an Altean broadsword. Violent, but he couldn’t blame her.

“Okay!” Pidge straightened up some. “I’ve cross referenced that bit of information I got from Sendak with the bit I pulled from his ship, and from Rover’s programming.” She paused for a moment, no doubt mourning her little robotic companion. “Honestly, most of the information I have is a garbled mess. The Galra are  _ good _ at making things hard to break into. What I can get though is that there are multiple “Universal Stations”, and there’s one fairly close to us.”

“Universal Station?” Hunk’s eyebrows shot up. “Like the kind of station that controls the entire universe?”

She stared at him blankly, likely wondering where his incredibly intelligent brain went. “It’s a translation from Galra. It could also be “Galactic Hub”, or something similar.”

“Or “Space Base”!” Lance cried out happily, prompting everyone to look at him. Shiro, Allura, and Pidge just stared at him, while Hunk snorted, and Keith coughed. He put his hands on his hips and said, “What?”

Pidge rolled her eyes and brought up the data. Coran went through it, comparing it to the ship sensors and data it was constantly collecting. He frowned heavily as he took in the data. “Our long-range sensors are unable to find anything at the coordinates within our range.”

“So did Sendak remember it wrong?” Keith asked, seemingly over his small coughing fit.

“That’s possible, or maybe these aren’t simple shipping stations like the data implies. Maybe we found something that they don’t want anyone to find,” Pidge suggested, excitement tinting her voice.

“At most, we might be able to hook up to some of their computers and get more accurate data,” Hunk pointed out. “Even if it’s just to start making an accurate map.”

Allura straightened up and clapped her hands together loudly. “Coran, set a course to those coordinates. Keep us close enough to get a good scan of it, but far enough away to avoid being noticed. Paladins.” She turned to the rest of them sternly. “We’ve been far too idle the past few quintants and that just won’t do. Suit up and meet in the Green Lion’s hangar.”

None of them had any inclination to argue with her orders, turning to march out of the room to prepare for the mission.

…

The mice chirped, their worries pressing against Allura’s mind. They were concerned for her health, for her visiting a place potentially filled with Galra.

They knew all too well her nightmares. Every time she sprang awake, gasping for her father or screaming for Zarkon to just stop, they were at her side. Their four little warm bodies curled up around her heart were so comforting, as were their tiny heartbeats reminding her that though her nightmares had a very real foundation, there was still hope. Sometimes good things lived on.

“You’ve done a good job keeping me informed of the Paladins while I was sick,” Allura whispered to them. “It does instill me with some confidence, and I do think they can pull off this mission, but I need to help as well. Father never sat around and delivered fancy speeches, nor will I.” Most of what she remembered of her mother was the woman sitting down, teaching, smiling,  _ ruling _ , but that was different. Her mother was sick. She was not. In fact, she’d never felt better. It was like giving most of her quintessence over to the Balmera and letting it replenish itself naturally took away her sluggishness.

This was her fight, and she was  _ going _ to fight.

They squeaked in resignation. She allowed them to climb up onto her shoulder and said, “Watch Coran for me? If he needs help in any way, try to aid him. Keep an eye on the egg as well, it’s very important to the Elder People of Bataria and would ruin our relations with them if anything happened. Understand?” They nodded their heads in agreement.

Allura left her room and headed towards the Green Lion’s hangar. Two of the mice headed towards the command deck, while the other two headed down towards the environmental rooms. Despite their small size, knowing that they were on the ship left her confident that things would be okay.

Not that anyone knew she was going with them yet.

Taking the Green Lion was the obvious choice. The cloaking that Pidge installed really was an amazing thing that they should probably put onto the other lions, but Allura wasn’t overly comfortable with the idea of someone tinkering with them. While she didn’t want to encourage Pidge to continue to alter her lion, at least it worked in their favour this time.

Allura mentally groaned when she saw Coran waiting there as well. It wasn’t that she was unhappy to see him, she just knew that he was going to try and stop her from going.

“It appears the gravitation between the two planets warps the electron emission spectrum enough to keep the planet off the deep space scanners. I’m willing to bet other hubs are hidden by a similar phenomenon,” Coran said, showing a projection of the base and the planets around it.

“So you can only see it if you really know where to look,” Pidge noted. “That’s smart. They don’t actually have to waste extra tech or people on it, because it’s hidden naturally. I wonder what they’re hiding here.” The image changed to what looked like a live feed of the station.

“It really does look like an universal shipping station like you originally thought,” Shiro told her with a small wave of his hand. He looked up as Allura approached and nodded at her before turning his attention back to the Paladins. “Places like this could very well handle shipments from all over the Galra Empire. It doesn’t necessarily have to be hiding something.”

“But it could be,” Pidge replied.

“It could be,” he agreed reluctantly.

“Well then,” Allura said as she stepped up to them, drawing attention to herself. “We’d better go down and take a look.” She narrowed her eyes at the image before her, ignoring the surprise on their faces. “So much for development. That right there looks exactly like their center control buildings used to. I’m willing to say it’s still the same.”

“We?” Keith repeated, tilting his head slightly.

“Yes we, keep up.” She patted his arm. “I’m going with you. This looks the same as Galra transportation hubs did before, and I’ve gone through many of them with my father.” Her eyes turned to the rest of them sharply. “Odds are, I’ll know more about them than anyone else.”

“Princess,” Coran spoke up. “I’d rather you stay here.”

She tried not to groan, having expected this. “I am a part of this fight against Zarkon as much as anyone. My father would not have sat around barking out orders, and nor will I. I’m going. Does anyone have a problem with that?”

Pidge blinked her big eyes. Hunk looked back and forth, as if unsure of who to side with. Lance whistled, rocking on his heels while avoiding her gaze. Keith looked like he wanted to laugh.

Shiro shrugged his broad shoulders. “Alright.” Allura smirked in victory as Coran dramatically cried out in shock at Shiro’s words, while the other three Paladins looked at him in confusion. The three of them had yet to spar with Allura like Shiro and Keith had. They would learn. “If Allura has any insight to how these things are laid out, it’s an asset to us, one that would be irresponsible to ignore. As it is, we’ll go in low, fast, and hopefully undetected. We’re not here for a fight. Thanks to the Green Lion, we’ll be able to stay out of sight for a little while. Coming around the dark side of the planet should help as well.”

Coran sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "I can flood their short-range sensors with a radiation burst. That should buy you a minute or so, while they assume it's cosmic interference. But, after that, it's up to you to be out of sight."

“Wonderful.” Allura said, clapping her hands together. “Let’s go.” It was time to find out exactly what they were dealing with.

…

“Do the lions have passenger seats?” Lance’s question was met with confused stares.

Pidge turned to face him from the pilot’s seat in green, and though he couldn’t see her expression past the reflection of her helmet, he knew she had her eyebrow raised. “Why yes, Lance, they very clearly do. You’re sitting in one right now.”

He scowled at her as she turned back. “I mean, they could have hidden ones, we don’t know! You’d think they would just in case.”

“They have a bedroom and room for storage,” Hunk pointed out almost thoughtfully. “Makes sense, in case you didn’t have something like the Castle of Lions anywhere nearby. Like for missions or if something happened to it.”

“Nothing is going to happen to the castle,” Allura insisted, though she didn’t turn back to look at them. “And I’ve never heard of the lions having passenger seats.” She sounded almost perplexed by the idea. “I’m sure there are ways to secure both passengers and prisoners.”

“What about lighting? Anyway to customize that?” Hunk snorted and Allura looked vaguely confused and annoyed. “What? I’m serious. Being surrounded by a single colour all the time might fit the aesthetic, which I totally appreciate because why wouldn’t you want to match, but it’s gotta be tiring. Shiro lives in, like, UV light in Black.”

From behind him, Shiro chuckled a bit. “You’re not entirely wrong, but we need to focus. We’re almost there.” He looked forward again, paying attention to the fact that the six of them were all jammed into Green, who was the second smallest lion, so they were pretty cozy.

Not that Lance minded too much. He was used to sharing small spaces. He shared a room with Marco until he went to the Garrison, and the dorms there weren’t exactly huge either. That wasn’t the point.

The point was that Lance nervously rambled at times, and there was something about this whole thing that was making him feel off. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

He cast a glance over his shoulder where Shiro and Keith were standing. Both were focused on the ship in front of them with a sharp intensity that made Lance almost jealous. He wished he could be like that, but the  _ waiting _ in this environment was killing him.

Sure, Lance’s weapon of choice was a gun, and he’d specifically taken courses that included sniper training, which could involve a lot of waiting, but that was  _ different _ . That wasn’t shoved into a giant green lion with four other people and a space princess.

“It looks almost identical to what they used to look like 5,000 decaphoebs ago,” Allura muttered, her brow furrowing. “Have they not thought to update their technology?”

“They likely have,” Pidge insisted as she double checked to make sure that the cloaking was still working. “Just doesn’t seem like they made it  _ look _ any different. Like a species stranded in time or something. I imagine that happens when your Emperor is alive for so long.”

“Probably right about that,” Hunk agreed. “You’d think they’d have better lighting at least though.”

“They like their dark and broody themes,” Lance butt in with a small shrug. He cast a glance over his shoulder. “You’d fit right in with them, Mullet.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but before he could retort, Allura butt in. “Though dark and drab, it’s because Galra tend to be able to see in the dark better. In the past, they were able to adapt to daylight fairly easily. Though I don’t see how  _ any _ of my Paladins could fit in with  _ them _ .” The look she sent him made Lance want to shrink into his suit and hide. Okay, Galra jokes were a clear no-go.

He muttered a quick apology, and Allura looked away. Lance couldn’t help but stare for a second, wondering what he had done to make her feel so much  _ disdain _ towards him. She was a very outspoken person, surely she would have told him to stop flirting if it annoyed her that much. Lance might be a flirt, but he respected boundaries.

Was he really just off his game?

While lost in thought, Green managed to sneak right up to the hub, and they were off. Bright white suits aside, they were able to stay out of sight of the soldiers and sentries that were there, though it wasn’t crawling like some places they’d already seen.

Honestly, it was almost boring how easily they got into the control room. Shiro snuck up on a soldier, and managed to get the drop on him so quickly that there was really no need for a lookout or anything like that.

Inside of the room, there were a few sentries, but once again, Shiro made very quick work of them, really not giving anyone else anything to do.

“Your missions seem to go much easier on the ground,” Allura noted as Hunk and Pidge rushed into the room and towards the computers. She and Shiro followed them in, while Lance took up the rear with Keith. He looked one way and then the other, using the scope on his blaster to check one way, while Keith watched his back.

“There’s a lot less shooting at us so far on this one,” Lance heard Shiro reply dryly.

“How’s it look out there?” Shiro called out to them.

“All clear,” Keith answered without hesitation before Lance could. He pouted a bit, following him in the room.

“Don’t worry, this shouldn’t take us too long anyway,” Hunk assured them all. He was already leaning over Pidge’s shoulder to watch her progress as she attached some sort of gadget clearly made from Altean parts to her computer.

“Hunk and I figured out how to get the information from other systems in a way that doesn’t harm ours, and automatically translates it with the help of the Castle’s tech,” Pidge explained as her little fingers flew over her keyboard. Seriously, she wasn’t even looking at the thing.

“When did you guys have the time to do that?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.

“While you were spending all your time in the showers or flirting with Allura,” Pidge responded sharply and without hesitation, causing him to wince a bit. He cast a glance towards Allura, who didn’t look all too impressed. “Anyway, Hunk had a great idea how to do it.”

“Right.” Hunk brightened up considerably. “Do you guys remember when we studied algorithms at the Garrison, and Mr. York told us that joke about the ghost learning symbolic logic and innumerably infinite sets?”

Lance groaned. He didn’t remember that, but it was probably one of the various times he nodded off while in Mr. York’s class. The man spoke in such a monotone voice that it was nearly impossible to understand. How Hunk took multiple classes with the man was beyond him (because he sure as heck hadn’t been in any of his programming classes). 

“I think I ceased existing in his classes,” Keith admitted, and Lance snorted.

“He was so boring,” he agreed, glad that someone agreed with him too.

“Come on guys—”

“You once said that you’d rather watch paint dry than listen to him,” Keith shot back at Shiro quickly. The Black Paladin looked tempted to argue, but then just shrugged.

“They let boring people teach on Earth?” Allura asked curiously as she glanced up at Shiro. “On Altea education is seen as one of our most valuable assets. Most teachers made it quite engaging.” She paused in thought. “Like a bunch of Corans.”

Lance loved Coran already, but a whole bunch of him sounded terrifying.

“Oh yeah, he was completely, totally boring,” Hunk agreed without hesitation. “The topics were fascinating though. I’m more into building the physical things but programming components are just as important. Anyway, the joke goes…”

Without warning, the giant screen in the room came to life. All of them instinctively ducked down beneath the console, presumably out of sight of any cameras, even if they couldn’t actually see any.

Lance peeked up carefully at the Galra, who seemed to be waiting for something. He ducked again and whispered as quietly as he could. “He’s still looking. Probably waiting for a signal or something.”

They waited a couple more seconds, but when it was clear that the Galra wasn’t going anywhere, Allura scooted around on the floor. She motioned for Hunk to follow her, and together, they propped up the soldier that Shiro knocked out earlier. Hunk propped him up so that he was in view of the camera, while Allura moved his arms as if he was some kind of puppet.

Seriously, how many hidden talents did everyone on the team have? Because apparently Allura was a puppeteer.

They waited with bated breath, but apparently this Galra was a slacker, since the other accepted the jerky motions and the screen disappeared.

“That was way too close. Good job guys,” Shiro muttered as Allura and Hunk let the soldier fall. That guy had to be really knocked out, or possibly dead. Lance really didn’t want to check. “Come on, we need this intel.”

Keith stood up straight, eyeing the console warily. He turned his attention towards the windows to watch for anyone coming, while Lance returned to his post at the door. Neither one of them were tech guys, so it was their job to be the point men.

It was a tense few minutes, and everyone was ready to jump down to the floor at a moment’s notice. Lance almost jumped when Pidge said, “Okay, download complete.”

“What does it say?” Keith asked her, not taking his eyes away from the ship that was being loaded below them.

Pidge hummed and then frowned as she stared at her screen. “Nothing.” Frustration creeped into her voice, cheeks tinting red. “This place doesn’t have  _ any _ useful information. Just a schedule of ships coming in and out.”

Hunk groaned, and both Allura and Shiro looked equally as annoyed as Pidge did. The Princess huffed angrily and turned from the computer, turning to the window to look down at the ship below them. She did have a bit of a temper, didn’t she?

“So this mission was a bust,” Lance noted, voicing what they were all thinking about their current situation. Seriously, how were they supposed to make a move on the Galra Empire if they couldn’t find any relevant info about it. It seemed like everywhere they went, things were either wiped completely clean, corrupted, destroyed, or useless.

“We should get out of here,” Shiro said, his voice somehow masking the disappointment he’d shown a moment again. He was really good at hiding his own thoughts and frustrations, wasn’t he?

“Hold on,” Allura spoke up. She was standing beside Keith, her vibrant eyes focused on the ship. “Pidge, can you tell us where that’s going?”

“I mean, sure, I do have the schedule here.” She brought it up again, having closed it when she deemed it useless. “It’s supposed to be here for about half an hour—her—half a varga. After that it—oh—it’s going to Ke—Kei—uhh.” She squinted at it. “Kei-stungs?”

“That’s the place Rolo mentioned,” Keith noted.

  
  


“Keistungz Central Command. The Galra homeworld,” Pidge said slowly as she remembered.

They all fell silent at that, not quite sure what to make of their situation. Allura stared outside for another moment before she turned around to face them. “We’re in the wrong place. Of course there’d be no relevant information here. This hub is not guarded very well. The information we need, it’s on that ship.” Her expression turned utterly fierce. “And I’m going to sneak aboard and get it for us.”

“What?” Lance blurted out, unable to stop himself. “No way!” He knew that Allura was awesome, but that sounded like a really bad idea.

“What I do is not up to you,” Allura replied, cheeks turning magenta in anger. Lance took a step back from her and held up his hand, because no, it wasn’t, but wasn’t he allowed to show a little bit of concern for someone that he’d never seen in combat before? According to Coran, Allura was literally the only person that could power wormholes, so if something happened to her, they were screwed.

“How are you going to get in?” Keith spoke up, breaking Allura’s angry stare and allowing Lance to breathe again. That was terrifying. He couldn’t help but bristle in anger a bit when he saw Allura’s fierceness fade into something appreciative. That wasn’t fair at all. He was just concerned, and Keith was just spurring her on.

“I,” she pointed at herself, “am going to walk right through the front door.”

Coran mentioned that Alteans could shapeshift, and he had even shifted colours himself before as an example, but what Allura did was completely insane. Lance watched with a morbid fascination as she grew taller, her skin changed to a deep purple as her hair shortened and changed colour as well. He shivered a bit as the white of her eyes turned a pale yellow."

“What the fu—” Shiro clapped his hand over Pidge’s mouth, but he looked just as flabbergasted. Actually, now that Lance thought about it, he and Keith were the only ones to see Coran shift before, weren’t they?

“How do I look?” It was so odd hearing Allura’s light voice come from such an intimidating creature.

“Terrifying,” Keith answered without hesitation, which seemed to please her quite a bit. He wasn’t wrong.

“How the heck did you do that?” Hunk asked, as shocked as the other three.

Allura laughed. “Alteans are a chameleon-like people who can blend in with the local populations. It’s the ability that’s made us great explorers and diplomats throughout history.”

“Can you stay like that for a long time?” Lance asked.

“How many different colours can you be at once?” Pidge wondered.

“Can you turn into anything, or do you have to see it first?” Hunk inquired.

“I’m pretty sure Galra don’t wear bright-white stretchy armour,” Keith added. Shiro shot him a look and he shrugged. That really was their default in reacting to one another when they couldn’t argue with one another, wasn’t it?

“My forms are not permanent. It becomes excruciating to hold after a quintet. Alteans would often resume their normal form over night, or in a safe place, and resume their disguise again the next morning.” She turned her attention to Pidge. “It depends on the creature I’m mimicking.” Next up was Hunk. “I do need to at least see a picture of them first, and it has to be a bipedal, land-creature. My internal organs are all the same, so things such as gills won’t work.” Lastly, she looked at Keith. “You’re not wrong. I will need a change of costume.” She looked at the knocked out Galra. “I can use his uniform as a disguise.”

“That’s good and all, but I can’t let you go in there alone,” Shiro said, his voice stern as he took a step towards Allura.

Her smile instantly fell, that same harsh glare she gave lance levelled at him this time. At least it was something she was willing to give to everyone. Plus it was even more terrifying in Galra form. “Excuse me?”

He held up his hands. “It’s not because you’re a Princess, or that I think you’re incompetent. It’s just too dangerous for any one of us to go it alone. We’re a team and we should always work in groups if it’s possible. I’m going with you. I may be able to help figure out where everything is in there. Galra structures seem to be highly similar.”

“It’s a good idea,” Pidge said before Allura could argue. “You’re going to need him, Princess. Shiro's hand is made from Galra tech. It's the only thing we have that will allow us to interface with their systems and gather intel. I can monitor the download remotely from here."

“I thought they blocked it,” Lance said, vaguely remembering something about that.

“They did, but I found a work around.” Of course she did. Pidge was terrifying that way. Who else could figure out how to use alien tech within hours of being introduced to it?

“If you’re going to go, you guys better hurry and get on with it. We don’t want you guys on that ship when it heads to Zarkon central.” Hunk mimicked a ship taking off with his hands.

“Fine, you can come,” Allura agreed, as if it were up for debate. It was very obvious that Shiro wasn’t about to let her go alone.

“How’s Shiro going to get on board?” Keith spoke up, his concern obvious.

Allura thought for a moment and then grinned. “I have an idea. Firstly, I need the armour from this Galra. Place him in a storage unit or something similar, in case he wakes up.”

That was how Lance found himself with Hunk, shoving a half-naked Galra into a storage unit. On the plus side, at least he knew that he was alive. He knew that they’d end up taking lives to save everyone else, it was something they started mentally prepping everyone in combat and weapons courses at the Garrison. That didn’t mean he wanted to handle a dead body though.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Hunk admitted. “Like…I think Allura is probably a little more badass than we realize but something just feels odd. Like something is going to go wrong.” He placed his hands over his stomach. “I feel it in my gut.”

“That’s just hunger,” Lance joked, partially because it probably was, and partially because he didn’t want to get his friend worked up. It didn’t feel right letting Allura and Shiro go alone onto a Galra ship, but by the time he and Hunk got back, they were already gone.

Pidge was glued to her computer, watching the screen. Hunk knelt beside her, and Lance could see a little dot moving that was no doubt Shiro and Allura. Computers weren’t Lance’s thing though, so he went over to Keith, who was watching out the window. He was focused on a Galra that was pushing a container.

“That them?” he asked.

“Yeah.” They both watched as two figures approached Allura and stopped her for a brief moment, but then she was gestured towards the ship.

“They’re in,” Lance said, moving from the window back to Pidge and Hunk.

“I don’t have actual eyes on them, but I can still track them from here. Shiro’s right, the layout of that ship seems to be exactly the same as Sendak’s,” Pidge noted. She shifted a bit. “I gave Shiro one of our transmitters to plug in. It’ll send me all of the information right away so they can get in and out quickly. For now though, we wait.” She didn’t look pleased by that idea at all, and quickly turned her attention to one of the sentries Shiro destroyed.

“What do you think they have in all those giant containers?” Keith’s voice drew their attention. He had yet to move, arms folded as he stared down at the loading dock below them.

“Well, I suspect that it’s sporks.” Pidge looked up from the sentry, and Keith turned from the window just to stare at Hunk blankly. Lance could understand their confusion, because he loved the big guy, but  _ what _ ?

“What?” Hunk shrugged. “This is an advanced race we're talking about here. Surely, they've learned that it's foolish to have forks and spoons when one tool will efficiently do the job."

“Right.” Pidge turned back to the sentry. “I wonder…” She hummed as she attached wires from her laptop to the alien sentry and went to work typing, no doubt hacking it somehow. Lance was realizing very quickly that it was just how she rolled. Incompatible technologies? Not a thing with Pidge around, apparently. “Maybe this guy can tell us.” She typed in a command and muttered, “What is coming in and out of this station?”

"Interrogation detected. Initiating lockdown." The sentry shuddered a bit then fell limp

Pidge’s eyes lit up at the obvious challenge placed before her. “Not talking, eh?” Lance was pretty sure he’d never seen someone type so quickly in his life. Like, did she get some kind of finger burn from that? Or carpal tunnel?

Keith rolled his eyes and turned back to the window. As soon as he did, he jerked with surprise, hand pressing against the reinforced glass. “Check out this guy.”

Lance was quick to get to his feet, along with Hunk, though Pidge stayed where she was. The figure Keith was referring too wasn’t as tall as the Galra, but it wore a long cloak that completely shrouded its figure, and what looked almost like a futuristic plague mask. “That’s not creepy at all.”

“If this was just a normal hub, why is it so hidden?” Keith asked slowly, eyes staring at the figure intently, like he could see something no one else could. “No one opposes the Galra, so why exactly would they care about normal shipments? It doesn’t make sense. Whatever is being kept secret here, or is transported through here, to the point where it’s not even in their computers, must have something to do with that scary dude.”

“That’s a pretty big leap,” Hunk told him with a shake of his head. “Like, yeah, I agree that something is a bit off, but what would it have to do with that guy? Whatever he is.”

Keith hesitated, and it looked like he genuinely had something to say, but wasn’t quite sure how to get it out. Like there really was something he knew but didn’t know how to share. Instead, he turned towards the door and started walking. “I’m going to check it out.”

“Shiro told us all to stay here,” Lance shot at him quickly. “Did you not hear his big speech about staying together?”

“Then come with me,” Keith responded just as quickly as he got to the door.

“We’re supposed to be watching for the Princess, and for Shiro too.” Because they were. They needed to be ready, just in case something went wrong. “We’re not supposed to be chasing after wild conspiracy theories based on a stupid hunch.”

Keith’s expression darkened. He didn’t say anything, just turned around and walked towards the door.

“Think about what you’re doing!” Lance shot at him, frustration bubbling up within him as he didn’t even bother to look back. “Don’t walk through that door!”

Of course, that didn’t work. Of course he kept going without a glance over his shoulder, completely disregarding what Lance had to say. He stared at the door as it slid shut, a part of him wanting to run after him because they were supposed to stay together. The rest of him was too stubborn to go, because Keith should have listened to him.

Turning away from the door, he saw Hunk and Pidge both staring at him. He cleared his throat and tried to shrug off the sting of Keith’s dismissal. “I think I told him.”

Hunk snorted and shook his head. Pidge rolled her eyes and went back to her computer, her voice biting with sarcasm as she said, “You are a paragon of leadership, Lance."

That stung more than he wanted to admit.

…

When Shiro insisted that he go with Allura, he didn’t exactly have a plan in mind. Whatever his brain was going to come up with though, it wasn’t being shoved into a little storage container that she pushed along.

Sure, it worked, they got by the guards with little to no questions, but it was still awful. It was one thing to be in a healing pod, above the ground and in a safe place. This was cramped, dark, and surrounded by enemies.

“Patience yields focus,” he muttered to himself, taking deep, quiet breaths. He didn’t want to blow their cover because he was freaked out. He closed his eyes, though it didn’t particularly matter, and tried to concentrate on anything but where he currently was. He could hear Allura’s footsteps, but more than that, he could hear other footsteps. Sentries. They sounded different.

He knew their footsteps, and how they moved. When he wasn’t fighting, all he could do was sit and wait. Wait and plan.

Shiro was surrounded by darkness, the prison bars kept him away from his freedom. The only thing he ever heard was the footsteps of the sentries, because there were rarely Galra around. Sentries that were programmed for efficacy above all else. They were programmed for routine.

They were programed with patterns.

His eyes flew open when they came to a stop, and was actually thankful for once that Galra ships were so dark as Allura opened the shipping container. His arm jerked in shock when he saw the Galra above him, but he quickly reminded himself that it was Allura. Just Allura.

“Are you alright?” she asked, her voice filled with concern as she held out a hand. The juxtaposition between what he was seeing, and what he was hearing made him almost feel sick. Like his brain couldn’t possibly connect the two things to make sense, therefore something had to be wrong with him.

Shaking that thought off, Shiro took her hand, and let her help him out of the container. He stretched out his arms and legs, grimacing a bit at the slight ache. He’d have to tell Coran about that, since the man insisted that he report any symptoms to him as they tried to find an appropriate cocktail to manage his symptoms. “I just remembered how I escaped from the Galra prison ship.” Well, part of it was still blurry. He knew that someone helped him partially, but he was able to get out due to remembering those patterns. “The Galra are spread so wide that they mostly use sentries on their ships. I timed their patterns. If I were the Galra, I’d keep all of them on the same pattern. Easy to figure out when something is wrong.”

Her shoulders straightened. “Do you remember it?”

Shiro looked down towards the corridor. A small thrill went through him. The thrill of actually doing something, of making progress towards fixing this mess. They had a very limited amount of time to get the info and get out. There was no time to second guess it, though there was the possibility that the pattern would be different. “Let’s find out.”

…

Waiting around for something to happen actually was pretty boring, so Pidge was glad that she had something to do. The hub was useless when it came to information, much to her frustration, but the coding within the Galra sentries was absolutely fascinating. It was so far beyond anything she’d seen back on Earth.

It wasn’t exactly elegant, in fact, the coding was surprisingly straightforward, but that’s what made it amazing. It’s also what made her able to alter it with a fair amount of ease.

A metallic thunk caught her attention, followed by Lance’s laugh. “Why are you hitting yourself?” Another clap. “Stop hitting yourself!” Another. “Quit hitting yourself.”

She looked up sharply and watched as Hunk pressed two wires together again and again, causing the sentry to slap itself in the head over and over again. Lance was sprawled out beside him on the ground, chuckling like an idiot at the whole thing.

“Stop torturing it, Hunk,” Pidge snapped. She was trying to get that thing to work and didn’t’ want him messing with it.

“Sorry.” His eyes flashed to her. “I just need something to keep me busy.” He tapped the metal exterior of the sentry, as if keeping his hands moving would help. “I keep thinking, what if Keith gets caught? What if Shiro and Allura are being blasted by these things? What if someone finds us here like…right now?!”

She paused for a moment in thought at that, because they were all valid concerns. She was sure that Shiro and Allura would be entirely fine. Shiro alone was a force to be reckoned with. In fact, sometimes it was like he couldn’t even control himself. She really wanted to look into that arm. Surely Shiro would let her if she asked nicely? Being the youngest had to have some kind of benefits!

Pidge shrugged those thoughts off and focused on the two idiots with her. Well, no, that wasn’t fair. Hunk wasn’t an idiot. “Can’t you guys be productive or something?”

“And what? Go wander off on our own like some idiot whose mullet is apparently growing into his brain?” Lance asked as he pushed himself up to look at the computer with interest. “You sure there’s nothing else on here?”

“Nothing we can access. There are still some things that require a matching biometric scan to work. Meaning we need a Galra, and you already locked the one we had away. It’s actually fascinating how they coded that in. Though also a bit short sighted because what if you have traitors? They can get into everything too! I mean, Shiro’s arm can do things like that too so it must be Galra tech, or his arm was made specifically for that.” Pidge knew that she was rambling, but it truly was fascinating.

“Can’t be all that great if Keith could unlock the computer on the Balmera,” Lance said with a wave of his hand.

“There might be Galra that are fighting against the Empire too. Who knows. The ones on the planet where I got my turtle. Like, they were really chill. A bad apple spoils the bunch and all, but that place didn’t seem to have any bad apples. Not that I told Allura that. I don’t think she’d believe me, at all. We talked about the Galra this morning and she like,  _ really _ hates them.”

“They, did blow up her planet,” Pidge pointed out bluntly. She could absolutely understand how it would be hard to see any good in anyone after that. These creatures kidnapped her father and brother, and well sometimes she thought there might be good ones out there, then she would look at Shiro’s arm and remember that no, they weren’t good.

“Wait!” Lance looked around at them as he flopped onto the ground. “Allura talks to you one-on-one?”

Pidge raised an eyebrow while turning her attention to her computer. “She talks to everyone? I know she was hanging out with Keith this morning, and me, and now she’s with Shiro.”

“Oh.” She didn’t have to look up to know that he was suddenly grinning. It was the  _ tone _ . That cockier-than-thou tone he got while they were flying in the simulators, about to crash. Pidge learned to hate that tone of voice. “Does she talk about me when I’m not in the room?”

That made her look up in time to see Hunk roll his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. She’s all like,” he clapped his hands together, voice rising, “’Oh Lonce. He looks so fine. I’m all atwitter.’ And then she turns red and makes me swear not to tell anyone.” He dropped his hands and Pidge almost snorted.

“I knew it,” Lance said, a smarmy grin on his face. That needed to go. She typed in a quick command, and was absolutely delighted to see the sentry smack him. It was only a small thing, but on the road to progress. “Pidge!”

“Whoops.” She wasn’t sorry at all.

..

When he actually had access to it, Shiro’s memory was impeccable. How he could help them move through a Galra ship so easily was fascinating. Humans certainly were very interesting. Though perhaps that had to do with their short lifespans. Apparently she had already lived double the length of an average human, so maybe they tended to hold onto their memories more.

It certainly benefited them as they made their way through the dark corridors of the ship. For what it was worth, it certainly looked the same as other Galra ships she’d seen before. If there was any technological advancements, it certainly wasn’t put into their aesthetic, which was grim and dark as per the norm with them.

Yes, she knew that it was partially because Galra eyes were more adept to darkness, but it wasn’t exactly kind on visitors. Not like Altean ships which were designed with modifications for other species in mind. It was why their technology was so fluid.

Altean alchemy was fascinating that way. Though she knew a little bit about healing and ritualistic alchemy, Allura wished that she could have studied structural alchemy to build and create things more. She knew that her species was blessed with their ability to use quintessence, the marks on their faces were proof passed down from their ancestors who were blessed by the gods. It was part of why she knew that they needed to know what was going on with this ship in particular.

Whatever they were moving, it wasn’t normal. She could actually feel it and see it, but as far as Allura knew, it wasn’t possible to bottle quintessence, so she had no idea what it was. The way Keith had been staring at it told her that he felt how odd it was too. They needed some kind of information to know where to go next.

She broke out of her thoughts as they finally got to a room with a console in it. “I’ll stand by the door,” Allura insisted. It only made sense, since she was the one that looked like a Galra (she’d need to take multiple showers to get the disgusting feeling of wearing the enemy’s skin off later).

Shiro nodded and headed towards the console. “We’ve only got about a minute before the next patrol comes by.”

“I’ll get us all the time we need,” Allura assured him, and she would. She was trained as a diplomat, after all.

Though Galra weren’t very diplomatic, were they?

She heard Shiro talking to Pidge over the comms, but continued to take in everything around her so that no one would sneak up on them. Unfortunately, as fast as Pidge was, it wasn’t quite fast enough to beat the patrol that was coming down the corridor.

This Galra was shorter than she was, but that didn’t stop him from squaring his shoulders and demanding, “What’s going on here? Who are you?”

Shiro shifted behind her, and she could hear him whispering to Pidge to hurry. Instead of worrying about that though, she held herself tall and deepened her voice. “It’s about time you got here! Where is the rest of your squad?”

That seemed to be enough to genuinely confuse the Galra. “What squad?” Oh, they didn’t do squads anymore? That used to be a very important part of the Galra military. They were creatures that tended to bond strongly with others of their species, so their squads were very important to them. She wondered what that said about them now.

Allura didn’t let that phase her for a moment. “The one that is to escort me and my associate to our ship.” She blocked his path as he tried to look at her. “We are part of Zarkon’s high command. Our work must  _ not _ be disturbed.”

“High command?” That seemed to catch his interest. “Wait, where’s Chief Information Officer Plytox?”

“You think a Chief Information Officer has the privilege to see Zarkon’s private matters?” she snapped. Allura couldn’t make her voice gravelly enough, but it was good enough.

“Of course not. Sorry, sir!” He clapped a hand over his chest. “Vrepit sa!” He continued on his way.

Allura let out a deep sigh that she didn’t even realize she was holding in. At the same time though, there was a thrill running through her body. She had always wanted to be a part of the action. For the longest time she wanted to be a Paladin just like her father before fate decided it wasn’t in the cards for her, and a part of her still felt that way now. Being part of the mission was thrilling. Just like back on the Balmera. It made her feel like she was actually doing something with herself. Yes, being on the ship was highly important, as were political matters, but that really didn’t feel like  _ enough _ to her.

This though, this grunt work of infiltration and danger at any moment, it made her feel so much more alive.

“Almost done,” Pidge said over the comms. “Also, Allura? That was  _ terrifying _ . I think Hunk almost wet himself at hearing that voice.”

Allura couldn’t help but smirk as she heard him protesting. Maybe she would keep that in mind for future use.

…

Keith had always been good at sneaking around. Most people seemed to expect him to just burst into a room screaming and waving his sword around, which—okay that was fair because most of the time taking people by surprise that way worked out for him.

Really though, he was good at moving around silently and hiding in the shadows. Not all of his foster homes had been awful growing up, but he had his fair share of bad ones, and group homes when no family wanted to bother with him anymore were awful. A kid learned very quickly how to not be seen or heard.

It wasn’t like he ever thought he’d put those skills into use sneaking around an alien spaceship, but here he was anyway.

The creature he was slowly tailing was a strange one with its long, flowing robes and weird mask. It kind of reminded him of those plague mask things from a few hundred years ago, which wasn’t exactly a nice thought.

Eventually, it moved out of sight, going down into another room a level below him, much like the control room. Keith looked down, brow furrowing at the sight of row upon row of massive containers filled with a glowing yellowing liquid.

He stayed low, watching as the creature moved towards the center of the chamber. There was a mechanical hiss as one of the containers was suddenly lifted from its spot and placed in a strange device in the center of the room. Beneath it was a much smaller container. He watched as the yellow stuff was drained out, the thing stretching out its eerily long arms as violet light danced from its gnarled hands. The light surrounded the vial, changing it from yellow to purple. The small container was then moved automatically into a secure moving box lined with many others.

During the entire thing, Keith felt like his hair was standing on end. He didn’t like the feel of whatever was happening at all. It felt  _ wrong _ on a deep, fundamental level.

Keith tapped his gauntlet, the chatter of the others filling his ears. He tensed for a second as if something else would be able to hear it, even though he doubted it could. Still, Keith was silent for a moment until he was sure that the thing was gone.

“Coran,” he muttered, still keeping his voice low. Despite that, Pidge and Hunk instantly stopped when they were prattling on about. “You  _ need _ to see this.” He shifted his head to show the room below. “I followed that thing and it turned the yellow stuff into the purple stuff.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Coran said, completely confused by what they were all looking at.

“What is it?” Pidge wondered, apparently also tapping into the cameras on his helmet.

There was a beeping sound from her end, followed by a mechanical voice that recited, "The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe." It took Keith a moment to realize that she must have gotten the sentry working again.

“Hey, nice job, Pidge!” Lance said, followed by a little ‘oof’ from Pidge as he probably clapped her shoulder or something. “You made him work for us.”

Coran was normally the most tolerant of Lance, but he completely ignored him, instead inhaling sharply and saying, “That’s  _ impossible _ . Galra can’t manipulate quintessence, and even if they could, using raw quintessence is dangerous. A taboo on Altea. The only ones who dared drabble with it suffered adverse effects.”

“Hmm.” Pidge hummed and there was a pause before he said, “Okay Mr. Robot, tell us more. What’s happening here, because this place definitely isn’t a normal hangar.”

"Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy,” the sentry informed them. “It is then refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements and shipped to Keistungz Central Command for distribution."

“That’s what powered Sendak’s crystal,” Pidge realized with a sharp gasp.

“I can’t believe it,” Coran said in horror. “To get that much raw quintessence would devastate populations. It’s not natural.” He paused for a moment in thought. “We need to know more about it.”

Keith nodded his head sharply even though he knew no one could see him. “I’ll steal some of it.”

“When you get down there, scan the container so we can see the composition of it. If it’s safe, it could possibly be placed into your storage unit. Like how your bayards are kept.”

“It won’t do anything to the stuff inside?” Hunk asked over the comms, sounding a bit wary. Keith couldn’t blame him. He didn’t particularly want to try to shove that into his magical hammer space only for it to explode on him or something.

“It shouldn’t. We have been able to store other forms of quintessence in such a way,” Coran assured him. “So long as the composition of that container is good enough, and it likely is. Be careful, Number Four.”

“Got it.” He crept forward, keeping an eye out for whatever that creature was. If it could handle quintessence like that, he didn’t want to come face to face with it.

…

Shiro breathed in slowly, trying to keep himself calm as he downloaded the information they needed. He could see quick blips of schematics, maps, logs, and so much more. They really had hit the jackpot coming into this ship. It made him glad that they brought Allura with them. He would have taken the Paladins back to the castleship and that would have been the end of it.

Maybe, just maybe there would be information on prisoners. He desperately wanted to find out what happened to Matt and Sam Holt. Just because his future was dark and blank didn’t mean he wanted theirs to be. Both for their own sakes as well as Pidge.

Luckily he only had to monitor the download to make sure that nothing went wrong. Pidge managed to override the programming of his arm so that he could still interface with Galra things without it locking him out automatically, but warned him that it might not last that long. It made him wish that this stupid download would go faster. She really needed to do a deep dive into how his arm was programmed, and oddly enough, Shiro was entirely fine with that idea.

Sure, he was going to let a 15-year-old fiddle with his arm, but she was a brilliant 15-year-old.

Since he only had to monitor the computers while Allura stood watch, he was able to listen to what the others were doing, and a part of him really wanted to throttle his brother because of  _ course _ Keith wandered off on his own. Shiro should have given him something specific to do, knowing just how much he hated to idle when he could be doing something worthwhile.

Still, it sounded important though. He didn’t think Allura was paying attention, if she had her comms on at all with anyone else but him, because surely she would have had more to say on the whole quintessence thing. In fact, it sounded like she was talking to someone outside the door, which wasn’t good.

“Come on,” he muttered at the computer, wishing there was something he could do to hurry it along. Then again, computers weren’t necessarily his thing. He knew cars, hoverbikes, and the basics of the shuttles the Garrison used, but the actual complexities of a computer and programming never interested him. Shiro wasn’t exactly a science kind of guy. That was more up Adam’s alley.

Using his free hand, he altered the sound coming through the comms, making everyone else quieter so he could focus a little more on Allura, and picked up her saying, “What's your bloodthirstiness on a scale of one to five? One being ‘No, thanks, I'm full,’ and five being ‘Unquenchable’?"

“What the fuck?” Shiro said quietly, especially when the Galra she was apparently talking to replied honestly. He wasn’t sure what conversation he expected to hear, but it wasn’t that one.

The calm was instantly shattered when a loud, gruff scream echoed from his helmet. Shiro jerked violently, his heart leaping at the sound of his brother in pure agony, especially when he realized that he borderline muted everyone else and it was still that loud.

Shiro wasn’t exactly sure  _ how _ Pidge programmed his arm, but when he jumped he must have moved it the wrong way, because the download shut down and a loud alarm blared through the air, red lights flashing and piercing the once dim room. Despite this, the only thing he focused on was getting his comms back on properly. “Keith! Keith are you okay?” He didn’t answer, and a quick check to his cuff showed him that there was a communication error. He tapped the red icon almost desperately, as if that would fix whatever just happened.

It did cause another little screen to pop up that gave him a readout of Keith’s stats. Apparently their suits were all connected that way, which was handy. He was still alive, but everything was elevated and that couldn’t be good.

“We’re on it!” Lance said from over the comms, his voice deadly serious. “Shiro, you and Allura have to get out of there, now!”

That snapped him out of his panic, because Lance was right. They had to go. He quickly grabbed the little storage device, yanking it out of the computer and putting it in the little part on his belt that basically let him carry things without actually carrying them around. Now wasn’t the time to think on that though.

Though time seemed to be at a standstill, everything that just occurred happened within the span of seconds. The door flew open as Allura tossed the Galra soldier over her shoulder, slamming him hard enough into the ground to leave a dent and knock the man unconscious.

Shiro full on had to stop for a moment to gape at her, because he knew Allura could fight, they’d been training together, but this was something else altogether. Altean hysterical strength indeed. He’d have to look into that later. 

“We have to go,” they both said at the same time, and Shiro was glad that they were on the same page. Allura snatched the soldier’s gun, and the two of them took off as quickly as they could.

…

It was really hard to focus in that room. The energy might have been contained, but he could still feel it. Though mild, all the containers together were almost blinding.

He snagged one of the small yellow containers on his way down to the lower levels, secure in whatever part of his suit it was apparently being stored in. Though the scan came back positive that the container would be safe for Keith to keep with him, he still found himself a little wary. Surly no one could blame him, since he was putting a powerful alien energy substance inside his belt. He was allowed to be apprehensive about the fact that he had two in there. One filled with yellow glowing liquid, and once he got it, the another filled with purple light.

Keith thought he was careful as he pressed himself against the wall and waited for one of the small containers with the pulsing purple energy to pass by him on its way to the larger storage bin. He dove at it, rolling to a stop on the other side of the hall, hidden in the shadows as he made sure to put it away. He didn’t want to lose it.

He knew that he could be a bit reckless, but if he got something out of this whole excursion, it was worth it.

A different energy suddenly pulsed behind him. He could just barely catch it over everything else, and the only reason he did was because of how  _ wrong _ and  _ twisted _ it was. He jerked around just in time for that thing to hit him, throwing him clear across the room.

He grunted as he hit the floor, pushing himself back up to his feet and centering himself. There was only one true exit in the room, and that thing was standing in front of it.

“Fuck it.” His sword appeared in his hand, and he launched himself at the masked alien, only for it to  _ vanish _ when he was about to slash it. He skidded to a stop and looked around with confusion, slashing again when it appeared beside him, not that it did him much good. The goddamn thing could apparently  _ teleport _ .

That was just fucking  _ dandy _ .

He grabbed one of the vials of yellow glow quintessence and threw it at the creature, who actually recoiled from it. It slammed into the ground, liquid sloshing all over with a small wave of energy that made Keith stumble.

His stumble was enough for the creature to generate lightning— _ fucking lightning _ —in its hands. Keith dodged, the walls around him exploding. He blocked the debris from falling on him, rapidly trying to think of a way to get  _ out _ . He really wished that he was any kind of a good shot (and had a gun) or had someone watching his back right now.

_ “What’s going on?” _ That was Hunk’s voice. Keith tuned into the fact that the others were talking to him, Coran, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance were all talking over one another, trying to get his attention. He forgot that he left his comms on the entire time.

There was no time to focus on them though. That thing didn’t seem to like the yellow quintessence, so that was his best bet. He launched himself forward again, running as fast as he could, but he wasn’t fast enough.

_ “Where are you?” _ Lance asked him.  _ “Keith!” _

Violet lightning came at him before he could react, slamming into his bayard and hands as if to disarm him instead of full-on killing him.

_ “I’ve got a lock on your suit,” _ Pidge said,  _ “we’ll be there in a second. Hold tight!” _

Keith was thrown backwards, slamming onto one of the massive containers of liquid, which cracked slightly under his weight, and crumbled down onto his knees. His bayard vanished as he brought his hands to his chest and gasped, pure agony washing over him, and  _ screamed _ .

His glove and gauntlets must have saved his hands, because they were torn to shreds, but when he looked at them, they were still intact. Well, shaking uncontrollably, bleeding, and pulsing with whatever that purple lightning was made of. It hurt so much that it was nearly impossible to breathe.

Somewhere in the back of his head, Keith realized that his communications had been entirely cut-off too.

Despite the pain, he was in even more danger. When he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, he lifted his left hand shakily, his shield still thankfully there. The next wave of lightning slammed into the shield and Keith was thrown backwards into the tank once again.

This time the glass couldn’t take the force, shattering and spilling its contents all over Keith.

He was still wearing his suit, so he was mostly shielded from the onslaught, but his bare hands had absolutely no protection. If it hurt getting his hands torn up, this was pure agony.

He screamed again, feeling like his hands were on fire before it pulsed through the rest of his body. Keith fell to the floor, legs tugging close to his chest as he curled inwards, shaking. Everything was too loud and intense. He swore that he could hear every little shift of every organ of his body.

It was too much, everything was too much. He didn’t even care that there was an enemy there anymore.

That creature was standing in front of him now. Keith cracked open his eyes a bit but it was far too bright. Still, that thing stood over him, staring down at him like he was something interesting.

Then there was what felt to Keith like a sonic boom as Green exploded into the room, shattering more tanks in the process. Lance and Hunk dropped down, guns blazing at whatever this thing was, but of course it vanished again.

The more vials and tanks that exploded around them, the more Keith shook and curled in on himself. It was too much. He’d rather die than deal with this.

There might have been voices around him, Keith didn’t know. What he  _ did _ know was that there were warm arms on him and they felt comforting. A bit scared, but still determined. He cracked his eyes open a bit as they started moving, and realized that Hunk was carrying him. He was so yellow and warm, that Keith couldn’t help but trust him.

Lance was running with them, his gun out as he covered them. He was interesting to look at. Though largely blue, there was a large fiery streak of red through him, bits of other colours dancing around, it was almost mesmerizing to look at. Would have been if Green wasn’t even more fascinating. Pure green glowed around the lion, pulsing from somewhere deep within that twisted and shifted, like a fluid ghost or something.

“Shiro, we’ve got Keith and we’re on our way to you guys,” Pidge yelled over the comms, but Keith could barely register what that meant. He did know Shiro though. He wanted his brother. 

“Hey buddy, can you hear us?” He looked up, unable to focus on either Lance or Hunk for too long. They were too bright. Instead, they fell to his hands. They were entirely healed with no blood or gashes so deep that he could see the bones. That was good.

Those purple marks that almost looked like lightning definitely weren’t though. Those strange purple marks were the last thing he saw before he closed his eyes.

…

“Shiro, we’ve got Keith and we’re on our way to you guys,” Pidge yelled over the comms, but Allura couldn’t focus on that at all. The sentries caught onto them, and it was only sheer dumb luck, and some really good armour, that neither one of them had been greatly injured yet.

Her heart leapt into her throat as she saw more approaching them from the front and she aimed the blaster at them. Instead, there was a bang from behind her instead. Pure embarrassment rushed through her when she realized that she had been holding the quiznacking blaster  _ backwards _ .

Shiro didn’t let that phase him, launching forward and cutting through the sentries with his glowing arm. It was beyond impressive. She dropped the gun and grabbed one of the falling sentries, grunting as she threw it into the others.

“I thought you said that you traveled around the galaxy! I mean, you fly a spaceship. How could you possibly not know how to hold this correctly?" Shiro scolded as he handed her the gun in the proper position.

“I’m tense!” she argued back as she grabbed his hand to drag him along. “This is a very tense situation!”

“Guys, that ship is taking off,” Pidge noted, “and they’ve got a few fighters out here. I can handle them, but it’s going to be hard to get into the ship.”

Allura cursed, but Shiro, like the blessing he was, quickly adapted to this new situation. “This ship has escape pods. I can get us to them and we can launch ourselves up.”

“That’ll work, I can grab the pod,” Pidge confirmed, very quick on the uptake.

They ran through the darkened halls, and Allura had to scowl at the fact that everything about this ship was designed to give Galra the upperhand. The energy pulsing through it was strange, the dark corridors were made for a more nocturnal species. It made things more difficult for them.

“Formulating navigation. All crew assume secure hyper-speed positions."

Allura felt the ship shudder under their feet, and felt like she was actually going to be sick. “Hurry! We can’t leave once the ship goes into hyper-speed!” Small ships that were too close to something moving at hyper-speed would get pulled along and likely destroyed. An Altean pod might survive, but it would be in really bad shape.

They ran through the door to one of the hangars, the escape pods lit up in front of them. Shiro ran into it first, setting it up to launch as if by pure muscle memory alone. Maybe that was the case. He had to have escaped the Galra somehow.

They were almost home-free when a loud screeching came from behind them. Allura whirled around to see that one sentry managed to get its gun into the small gap in the door, using it to try and shove the rest of it open.

She practically threw herself at it, knocking the gun away and grabbed the two sides of the door, trying to ram it shut. Ancients, she wished that she actually had permanent super strength or something, because though adrenaline was rushing through her like nothing else, her arms were beginning to shake.

She wasn’t going to be able to hold the door, and they were going to be all over them within seconds after she let go.

Shiro left the pod and rushed back to her side, using his arm to try and seal the door shut. Allura looked over her shoulder, realizing that the autopilot must have been turned on, because the pod was getting ready to take off.

In that moment, everything seemed to slow down. Allura’s eyes fell to Shiro, who was desperately working despite the assault on the door from the sentries that kept taking apart the spots that he sealed.

His plan of escape had been a solid one, most of his plans were. He was an incredibly good leader, and she was beyond impressed with him. Not only that, but she knew he had a genuinely good heart. He put so much of himself out there, and maybe that had to do with the fact that he seemed to be living on borrowed time, but she had a feeling that most of it was just who he was as a person.

And who he was as a person was someone she trusted without question. In that moment, Allura realized that she could trust Voltron, the castle, and the fate of the universe to him. It would be okay. Without him though, who knew what would happen? After Zarkon, the Black Lion shut down and hadn’t moved again until now, no matter how much they begged or how many lives were lost.

She couldn’t let that happen again.

“Go,” she spoke up. “Get into the pod.”

“I’m not leaving you!” he yelled back at her so that she could hear him over the banging of metal and the engines of the pod that were coming to life.

Allura glanced behind her and saw the doors to the pod closing, and knew what she had to do. Her strength was fading, but she had a little left in her.

“You have to!” Without warning, she grabbed him by his collar and threw him as hard as she could into the pod. He skidded across the floor at the same time that the sentries burst through the door.

Shiro’s face appeared in the window of the pod, staring at her in horror as he banged on it. Allura felt the sentries grab her and force her to the floor. She started to shift beneath them, the armour becoming far too big as she turned back into her normal self. If she was going to die, she was going to do it as an Altean, not as a Galra.

She focused on Shiro as the pod launched into space, relief washing over her.

“Don’t shoot it, the General wants it alive,” one of the sentries said. “He wants to question it.”

Allura was about to be defiant, because she wasn’t telling anyone anything. That was when a dark feeling appeared behind her. She shuddered, and the sentries around her backed off, almost as if they were afraid.

Allura looked over her shoulder, eyes meeting a pale white mask before everything went dark.

…

Shiro almost felt like he was having an out of body experience as he stayed with his fists pressed against the window. He was aware that he existed, but at the same time, nothing felt real. He was barely aware of the Green Lion grabbing the pod he was in and moving out of the way just in time for the ship to jump into hyper-speed.

Just like that, Allura was gone.

“Alright guys,” Pidge’s voice jolted him out of his shock. “Hop out of the pod so I can ditch it. Green says there’s nothing of value in it at all and wants to get rid of it.”

Shiro numbly climbed out of the pod, and made his way silently up to the cockpit of the Green Lion. He felt Black’s presence around him, like they were trying to comfort him. It didn’t matter though.

He was barely aware of the walk, but soon found himself staring at the other Paladins. Instantly, his eyes fell to the floor, where Hunk was holding an unconscious Keith. The boy’s warm brown eyes met his as he asked, “Where’s Allura?”

Shiro didn’t answer. How could he when he had messed up  _ so _ badly? He shakily made his way over, kneeling on the floor beside him and all but taking his little brother into his arms. He was still breathing, but it was raspy and his skin was flushed and sweaty, not to mention there were violent violet marks on his hands. He was still alive though.

“Shiro?” Lance’s voice made him look up, sounding so wary and worried, like he was going to be sick. Like he already knew the answer.

Of course he did. They all did.

“She saved me,” he choked out. “She threw me into the pod and stayed behind. It happened in seconds, and there was nothing I could do to help her.” God he was going to throw up. He pulled Keith just a little closer, as if his brother would also vanish if he let go.

“She’s still on that ship?” Pidge asked in pure horror as she twisted around to look at them.

“The ship that just took off, probably to Zarkon?” Hunk clarified, sounding just as shocked.

“The place that’s way too dangerous for us to attack right now?” Lance added on shakily, as if he was trying to make sense of the whole thing.

Shiro couldn’t look at them. He kept his eyes on Keith as he twitched in obvious discomfort, looking at his hand again. The purple on his hands made him remember purple hands on him, poking and prodding, taking samples and injecting him with who-knows-what.

“It doesn’t matter how dangerous it is, we can’t let Zarkon get Allura.” He couldn’t let her go through that. Who knew what Zarkon would do to her? 

“You said going there would be a huge mistake.” Hunk kept his voice low and calm, but still heavily concerned from where he continued to kneel beside him. “That attacking a place like that head-on would be one of the dumbest things we could possibly do, and that was before we were down a Paladin and a Princess.”

“We’ll get Keith in a pod,” Shiro insisted, trying to plot things out, because he had no idea what happened, so there was a good chance that Keith might be out for a while and they couldn’t let Allura wait that long. “From there…we can’t wait. We have to make a plan  _ now _ . I know I said it’d be stupid to attack, but we don’t have a choice anymore.”

Hunk looked like he was going to throw up. Lance dropped his head running a hand over his face. Pidge’s hands gripped on the controls tighter. Keith convulsed just slightly before settling again. Shiro closed his eyes to stop himself from crying.

How did such a simple mission go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the second last chapter of this story is finished! 
> 
> I'm struggling a little bit to find my footing in the second part, but I am trying. So if you like this series and would like me to continue it, please let me know! Your feedback is beyond appreciated. It's truly my main motivation to keep going.
> 
> I hope everyone is having a safe and happy holidays, despite how difficult everything has been this year. Even if you're not, I hope this story brings a bit of entertainment and happiness to you. I've also been posting a series of short oneshots based in an AU where our paladins are all teachers in a high school together, though these ones just focus on Klance and their first Christmas together as husbands. So all the fluff and swooning over one another in 500-1500 words. 
> 
> If you have any questions about this universe (as in the canon AU, not the teacher one), don't hesitate to ask! Or if you just want to talk Voltron, hit me up. I'm super excited for the next chapter too! It's going to be a ton of fun!
> 
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> Story betaed by: [Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon/pseuds/Silvamoon)


	15. Keistungz

Shiro stared down at Keith’s unmoving form from a distance. Coran had pushed him away, silent and stern as he carefully took off Keith’s armour and completely discarded it. Keith’s bayard, the second blade he kept on him, and the vials he retrieved were very carefully set aside. He had tapped a couple buttons and a hole appeared in the floor for him to toss the armour out of. He then threw away his own gloves too.

The other Paladins stood silently behind Shiro. Pidge shifted slightly to look at the vials, Lance had his arms crossed while staring at the floor, and Hunk was tapping his fingers togethers nervously.

“All of you need to strip and throw out your armour. Try not to touch it,” Coran ordered them stiffly. “We don’t want anyone else to get exposed to raw quintessence like Keith did.” Pidge opened her mouth to protest. “Even if you didn’t touch him, it’s still a precaution.”

“Would that be bad?” Shiro asked, his voice quiet. He felt like he was around a ticking time bomb, or in front of the principal after doing something really bad. 

Despite his question, he carefully pulled off his armour and tossed it in the hole as well. The others took out their bayards and anything else they had on them and did the same.

Coran was completely silent until they were all down to the tight black tank tops and shorts they wore under their suits (for their own comfort than anything else, and just in case they needed to entirely strip like right now).

“Keith should be dead,” Coran answered bluntly. He motioned towards the vials. “Raw quintessence like that is incredibly powerful, and there are very few species that can survive exposure to it.”

Pidge blanched at that. “What? Then how…”

“Alteans, of course, can survive it to a point. I could handle that small vial though I might get sick. Allura might get a little hyper, but would be able to release her own excess quintessence easily enough. It’s easy to remove it from yourself, nearly impossible to remove it from someone who is unwilling, not without corrupting it.” He was silent as he placed a cube against Keith’s skin, the white suit mending together over his body. “Galra are a little hardier and can survive minor exposure. There are other species as well. Olkari can handle it about the same as Galra, and I’m sure there are others that would be fine.”

Shiro didn’t see him move, but a screen popped up nearby, showing the video that was captured from Keith’s helmet. They could watch the entire fight from his perspective, and it made Shiro want to scream. He’d fought remarkably well, perhaps a bit too aggressively, but there was no way he could handle something that teleported around and shot lightning from its hands.

“Those tanks? Exposure to that would kill most beings. An Altean may perhaps survive, but it’s likely that they’d succumb to some form of madness. From the scans I have of all of you, humans have no natural defense against it. The rest of you would have died.”

“The rest of us—then how—what?” Hunk looked beyond confused. Shiro was too.

“How the heck did Keith survive then?” Lance blurted out, brow furrowed. “Like, I’m glad he did, but  _ how _ ?”

Coran was silent before closing the pod and stepping back as it positioned itself vertically. God, Keith looked so pale in there. “Luckily, only his hands were exposed. Though the fact that he had open wounds on them did make it worse. The only reason he survived is due to his alien genetics.” He looked up at the gasps around him, and quickly came to the conclusion that Keith hadn’t mentioned that factoid to anyone else.

“What?” Pidge asked, her eyes blown wide.

“Woah, woah, wait a second,” Hunk held up his hands. “It sounds like you’re saying Keith is part alien?”

“Yes,” Coran answered with a nod. “We've been speculating that he had a distant relative that wasn't human, but that is all I shall say on that. It’s his story to tell.”

Shiro’s head snapped up as he stared at his brother, almost lightheaded. He had so many questions, but at the same time, that seemed to answer a lot of things. Differences that he had noticed over the years that he just shrugged off. Abnormalities with his bloodwork, examinations, and other things that were shrugged aside as clerical errors.

“What are you doing?” Lance said suddenly, his eyes focused on Keith’s vitals. “It looks like this is slowing everything down?”

“Unfortunately, to get rid of enough of the quintessence for him to be able to function, we have to essentially burn it out of him since we can’t remove it. It bonded to him already and would just rebound. What Allura did, transferring it on the Balmera, is something rare and difficult to do. I am essentially forcing his body to use up the excess energy. He’ll be fine, it’s been done before. It’s a technology that Alfor himself worked into these healing pods and didn’t even exist in other places on Altea. I shudder to think what would happen without them.”

Shiro wanted to scream and bang on the door, because the pod was basically killing him to heal him and that was insane. Alteans were insane. This whole thing was.

Coran turned around to stare at him with steely, serious eyes like he had never seen on him before. Not even when Allura had expended herself helping the Balmera. “Now, explain to me why it is that the Princess had to sacrifice herself for one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen?”

Shame rushed through Shiro, and he felt his shoulders slump. “I didn’t—I tried—she literally picked me up and threw me.” He felt his headache spike, because it was his fault. He could have done  _ something _ . Seal the door faster. Insist that she run while he stayed behind. He’d been in the hands of the Galra before, he would have been fine.

“We can still find her,” Pidge spoke up, holding her computer that she brought with her from Green. “We have all of the information from the ship. We know where it’s going.” She pulled it open, not caring about the coldness of the room as she started looking through the data.

“Just the Galra home base is all,” Hunk replied dryly, which made Coran groan.

“We should go as soon as possible. Zarkon is going to know we’re coming, because of course we are, and every second we wait gives him more time to prepare,” Pidge noted as her fingers zoomed over the keyboard, eyes focused on it.

“I agree,” Lance said as he leaned over her shoulder. “We form Voltron, fly in, fly out, dust off our hands, and walk away.”

“Um, question. Do you guys not remember how much we struggled with the Galra? Pretty sure their homebase is going to have even more defenses. They could also have a ton of fleets too, or even a bunch of robeasts!” Hunk motioned towards Keith. “Not to mention we don’t  _ have _ Voltron right now. We need something a little more thought out.”

“Hunk is right,” Shiro agreed, holding up his hands. “We’ll plot a course there and start making a plan. Pidge, do you have the coordinates?”

“Right here.” She tapped a few buttons, somehow having connected to the castle mainframe (Shiro really wasn’t going to question it), and the coordinates appeared on a screen in front of them.

Coran nearly dropped the vial of pure quintessence as he stared at them, pure horror. “No,” he breathed out, his hand shaking. “It can’t be.”

“What is it, what’s wrong?” Shiro demanded, everyone else coming to attention as they stared at Coran in worry.

Coran silently brought up one of the star maps that could be accessed from nearly every room in the castle by either him or Allura. He put in the coordinates, and the stars rushed around them momentarily before coming to a stop.

Pure confusion pulsed through Shiro as he realized that he was staring at an actual planet. Not an artificial one like the Galra home world was supposed to be. No, this one was an actual planet.

His eyes moved to the name that was hovering beside it, and he instantly knew why Coran sounded so horrified.

Still slightly shaky, Coran confirmed his thoughts. “Those coordinates are exactly where Altea used to be.”

…

A dull pain was the first thing that greeted Allura as she regained her consciousness. She didn’t move from where she was splayed out in an uncomfortable position on a cold, hard floor. Instead, she tried to gain her bearings and piece as much together as she possibly could before alerting anyone else of the fact that she was awake.

The fog cleared, and Allura remembered exactly what happened. She hoped against all hope that Shiro was okay, that Pidge managed to retrieve the escape pod that she forced him into.

Allura slowly opened her eyes, but there was no need to adjust to the brightness in the room, since it was still relatively dark, lit with only the bright purple energy created by that wrong-quintessence. She knew that Galra had excellent eyesight, their eyes able to adapt to different levels of light, but they tended to prefer twilight and night over the middle of the day.

She took stock of herself, glad to see that she didn’t have any broken bones or permanent injuries. Her arms, shoulder, and back ached, but that was common for Alteans after bouts of hysterical strength. She didn’t regret it though, since it allowed Shiro to slip away. She’d do it a hundred times over.

The Galra armour was gone, but that didn’t surprise her. It was far too large for her once she shifted back into her natural form. She was left in her own flexible armour that she had worn underneath.

Her hand rose up to her neck, and relief passed over her when she realized that her helmet module was still there. If she had the opportunity to, she would sooner throw herself into deep space than be at the mercy of the Galra. Of Zarkon.

At that thought, Allura pushed herself up into a sitting position, and then to her feet. She refused to be sprawled on the floor when it finally came time to meet the monster face to face. If this was her end, she was going to hold her chin high and meet his gaze with no hesitation.

Despite her determination, fear did creep up within her. Her hands flexed into fists and opened again as she tried to calm herself down. Fear wouldn’t help her now. Except, she didn’t  _ want _ to die. There was so much left to do, and even if there wasn’t, a part of her was still curious about this new universe that she woke up to. She was curious, and also dreaded, to know how other things had changed. Allura still wanted to know. She didn’t want it to end yet.

It took her a moment to realize with startling clarity that her fear wasn’t just for herself. No, Allura was terrified about Voltron and what her Paladins were going to do. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know. Of course she knew. They were going to come for her. It was just how stupidly heroic her Paladins were.

She wanted to scream at them, tell them not to come. Her life was not worth the loss of Voltron. The loss of them. That pragmatic part of herself couldn’t help but shine through. At the same time though, the thought that they were going to come for her warmed her inside. They were all such good people at their core. Voltron was a unit created from many pieces working together, and already she could see that forming when she wasn’t comparing them to the previous Paladins. They were not going to leave a piece behind.

An individual was important, and she would fight for any person.

They still shouldn’t come for  _ her _ though.

The sound of movement in the hall beyond her door caught Allura’s attention, her ears twitching slightly. Her eyes snapped towards it just as it slid open, revealing two tall, masked figures.

Their quintessence made her shiver. She didn’t know what these creatures were, but they were  _ wrong _ . Like something that was once good and was twisted and turned ugly, kind of like the quintessence that ran through Zarkon’s ships. It was a destructive, ineffective existence that simply destroyed the energy instead of reusing it again and again in different forms.

The tall figures parted, and a much shorter figure stepped forward. Immediately, she wanted to cringe into herself, because this one was worse. There was a familiarity there, something that she felt like she knew but couldn’t quite place. This one wasn’t the same as the others. Its quintessence took that ‘wrongness’ to an entirely different level. It was like comparing sludge to light.

The only features she could see were the long, pure white hair that came from underneath the hood, a small shudder running through her when Allura realized that it was a Galra funeral shroud. A hand reached out, revealing purple skin and long nails, and its head tilted up just enough to reveal glowing yellow eyes. “Come with me.”

With a sudden harshness, a memory slammed into Allura. She was peeking around the doorframe watching her father talking to Coran as they spoke of a recording. A recording of a monster that had done, and would continue to do damage across the universe.

Allura knew exactly who this was. She was the one that killed thousands, probably millions or even billions by now. The monster that created robeasts and was always at Zarkon’s side.

She was the witch.

…

_ Allura didn’t understand why she had to sit in the corridor. Why she couldn’t just go into the room that lay beyond the closed door, or down to her own to hopefully play with her dolls. It would have been way more fun. _

_ Instead, she sat beside Coran, who was sitting really stiff and straight. It was weird. He was normally so happy and energetic. She loved playing with him, but he seemed so…sad. _

_ “Coran, why can we not go see Mother?” She tilted her head slightly. “Father went in with her. You seem sad and that would make you happy.” Her parents were both very good friends with Coran. _

_ He inhaled and then stared at her, and really he did seem very sad. “I am very sad, but we must remain here for now.” _ __

_ “Why?” She didn’t understand it, and she was 50 now, she understood a lot. Like how she understood that her Father got a lot of big rocks from Daibazaal that he really seemed to like working with, and he was making something really neat down in his labs. She wasn’t even supposed to know that, and she did. _

_ “Perhaps I can explain.” _

_ Allura instantly perked up at the deep voice, a smile appearing on her face. “Hello Uncle Zarkon! I mean, Emperor Zarkon. Father says I must have prop decorate-um.” _

_ “Proper decorum,” Coran corrected her. “Are you sure you don’t mind?” _

_ The tall Galra smiled down at her with that familiar, friendly look that she had gotten used to over the years He was one of her father’s close friends, and was always very kind to her. She liked Galra. They always cared about their kids a lot and that was really cool. He nodded his head and looked towards Coran. “Go be with them.” _

_ Allura watched in confusion as Coran bowed his head in thanks and left to go into the room that she desired to go in. She pouted a little, looking up as Zarkon sat next to her. “Why can’t I go in?” _

_ “Give them some time, little flower,” Zarkon said to her in a gentle way that she only ever heard directed towards her, and maybe her Aunt Honerva. Though she liked her Uncle Zarkon way more. He was a lot nicer. “You will be allowed in soon.” _ __

_ She thought on that for a moment, remembering back to the last time she saw her mother. Her normally rich skin seemed pale, and she was so, so tired, allowing her normally pinned up hair to be let down. _

_ A lot of people said that Allura looked like her mother, though she wasn’t sure since she had the same eyes as her father. Her skin was lighter like his too. _

_ She may have been little, but she wasn’t a baby. She was 50 now! That was why Allura knew that something was wrong. Very wrong. She asked, only for both her father and Coran to tell her not to worry. _

_ The Galra had always been more straight forward though. “Uncle Zarkon? Is mother sick?” _

_ He hesitated before resting a large hand on the top of her head. “Yes, she is.” _

_ Allura nodded, fighting back the tears in her eyes, because she was strong and would not let her father down. “She’s going away, isn’t she?” _

_ “Yes, she is,” he answered honestly again, and pulled her his arms as her tears fell. “It is scary, but you are very brave and will make her proud, little flower.” _

_ Allura clung to his armour, not wanting to let go. She trusted her Uncle Zarkon as much as she trusted her father and Coran, and knew that he was right. _

_ That didn’t make it any easier. _

…

The second that they entered the command deck, Allura was shoved to the floor, her knees aching as they slammed into the hard metal. She gritted her teeth together and looked up through the strands of white hair that fell into her face, seething silently.

…

_ Allura knelt on the ground, trying to hide her tears as she cradled her hair, magenta blood rising to the surface of the wound. She wasn’t used to cuts and scrapes, her own strong skin hard to cut through. What was this blade made out of? _ __

_ “Allow me to look at that.” She looked up at Zarkon’s imposing figure as he knelt down before her and took her small hand into his own. Even at 100-years-old, he was still so much taller than her that it was startling at times. _

_ “This blade,” he said as he wrapped her hand to stop the bleeding, “is made from a combination of incredibly strong minerals from Marmora, one of Daibazaal’s colonies. Together, they form luxite, one of the sharpest and strongest metals known, and as such, requires a specific sheath.” His stern gaze met hers. “It is sharp enough to cut even your skin, so you must be careful.” _

_ She nodded her head, properly chastised. “The others were quite boring, and I wanted to train.” _

_ “I never understood the Altean desire to sit around with drinks and chat for quintents when there are things to be done,” Zarkon admitted to her, his voice low like he was offering her an important secret. “Training is a much better use of your time.” _

_ Allura brightened at that. “Father doesn’t agree, but I think it’s important.” She looked up at him almost shyly. “I want to be a Paladin, so I need to train.” _

_ A surprised, booming laugh escaped the Emperor. “Do you now? That does take a lot of training.” _

_ “I can do it,” she insisted, eyes narrowed. “I can be a good Queen and fight like all of you do.” _

_ “I’m inclined to believe that,” he answered with a nod of his head as he stood again. “Your spirit is strong, little flower, and that is something you should never let go of.” _

…

“Princess Allura.”

The image snapped, leaving her in the present moment. 

The figure before her was just as tall and imposing as she remembered, perhaps now even more so. He turned towards her, and Allura felt something twist painfully within her. He was so, so familiar, but at the same time, it was like looking at an imposter. Allura hadn’t actually seen Zarkon after he betrayed them, but this creature before her just looked wrong. His once purple skin was now a faded, waxy grey, his eyes glowed a vibrant purple.

If the Witch felt awful, it was nothing compared to him. His quintessence was so tar-like that it almost made her want to vomit. How he was alive like that, she couldn’t say, because he felt like an animated corpse.

She hadn’t actually seen Zarkon at his funeral, as it was disrespectful to view a Galra after they were deceased, but she had wept for him. This wasn’t the person she shed tears for. This wasn’t the person that once called her ‘little flower’ after she apparently told him that she wanted to be a juniberry flower when she was just a toddler.

The juxtaposition infuriated her even more somehow. It was true, he was a monster no matter what, and he certainly looked and felt the part now. Just the sight of him sent pure rage through her entire body, and she threw herself at him with every bit of aggression she had.

The Witch held out her hand, and Allura felt the very quintessence in the air rip and twist unnaturally around her, holding her up, and then slam her into the floor. The pained shock of the impact rushed through her, but she didn’t do more than grunt.

She was not going to give them the satisfaction of seeing her scream.

“Such anger and strength,” Zarkon said as he approached her. Allura looked up at him with pure scorn on her face, but it didn’t seem to impact him in any way, shape, or form. “Nothing like the look on Alfor’s face when he begged for his life. He was always a weak man.”

“Liar,” she spat at him. “He would  _ never _ beg.”

Those dead, glowing eyes observed her before he looked at the Witch. “Haggar. Show her.”

“Huh?” Before Allura could react with anything else, the Witch’s—Haggar’s—hand was on her face, and suddenly, she was somewhere else.

_ Unlike the darkened room, this place was so bright with fire that it was almost painful. There were screams in the air as smoke billowed into the night sky. _ __

_ “Zarkon.” _

_ She looked up sharply at the familiar voice, her breath leaving her as she saw her father stumble towards her, magenta blood trickling down the side of his head. He limped, unsteady on his feet. “Zarkon, please don’t do this. Remember our friendship and all we fought for. Please. I’m begging you.” His legs gave out as he fell down to his knees in front of her. _

_ Her lips parted as she started to speak. “I remember.” It struck Allura that she was watching this entirely from Zarkon’s point of view. “That is how I know you deserve this.” His blade rose without any hesitation, striking down straight through Alfor’s neck. _

Allura screamed. The image vanished abruptly, and her quintessence exploded out of her, throwing Haggar, Zarkon, and everything else around her backwards several feet. She then launched herself at Zarkon. “You monster! I’m going to kill you with my bare hands.” 

The creatures with Haggar were on her again, weaving complicated chains of quintessence around her to hold her still as she struggled, but she managed to again throw them off.

Zarkon himself grabbed her, his large hand fitting around her neck as he lifted her high above him. She struggled and gasped for air, kicking at his chest plate and clawing at his gauntlet.

“Disgusting creatures,” he spat at her. “Altea and those who lived there were slowly rotting away at its core. I removed the disease and perfected the galaxies around it.” He threw her forward so that her face slammed against the window to look outside. “Tell me,  _ little flower _ , do you recognize where my new world is now?”

She fought against him, screaming in frustration over the name. Zarkon’s strength far surpassed her own though, and she was forced to look at the stars before her. What was the purpose of that? What did he expect her to—

She froze, both physically and mentally, when her eyes locked onto the constellation before her. It was one she looked at many, many times when visiting the artificial rings of her homeworld. “It…can’t be…no!” She kicked off the window and tried to fight again. “You’ll pay for this. You and your filthy empire! Voltron—”

“Will only make me more powerful,” Zarkon interrupted her. “Your father knew that as well as I. That’s why he led me to believe he destroyed it all those years ago. It was a fool’s hope. I knew it still lingered. I could feel it within me. Your new paladins will come for you, and they will deliver Voltron to me.”

“You’re not the Black Paladin anymore,” she said through a choked gasp, still clawing at the hand that gripped her neck. It wasn’t easy for Alteans to bruise, but he was likely going to leave some. “There’s nothing you can do with it.”

“Do not think you know Voltron more than I,” he cautioned her before tossing her to the floor like she was a sack of waste. “You can’t begin to understand what it truly is.” He held out his hand, and in a flash of light, the black bayard appeared in his hand.

Allura froze at the sight of it, because she always feared that this was why they could never find it, even during the war before Altea was destroyed.

Anger once again erupted in her, because her father created that. How  _ dare _ Zarkon hold it like it belonged to  _ him _ . She tried to throw herself at him, when lightning from behind struck her. A scream escaped her lips, and everything went dark again.

…

The hologram that loomed before him was pretty straight forward. It showed a spherical spaceship that acted as a planet. That wasn’t really a big deal. Even people had smaller versions of this near multiple planets in their solar system. They didn’t house nearly an entire civilization, but they  _ could _ have possibly made something like that.

At the same time, there was something  _ so _ daunting about it. While Pidge managed to dig up some information on Keistungz, it wasn’t enough. They knew next to nothing about it. Sure, there were a few helpful things that the incoming ships needed to know – that tractor beam would likely be a problem for them. The one on the battle cruisers was bad enough. Lance was  _ sure _ that the one at this place would be even worse.

His job was to analyze the physical entrances to see if there was some way in while Pidge and Hunk tackled the potential weapons and mechanics. It was a pretty simple job, all things considered, and it absolutely  _ infuriated _ Lance. Like, he genuinely wanted to throw something.

He couldn’t help but stare at the ship, wondering where Allura was on it, and if she was okay. She didn’t deserve to be captured and held in a place like that. Trapped in the heart of enemy territory. Enemy territory that was in the same place her own homeworld used to be before said enemy destroyed it. No one deserved that, but  _ especially _ not her.

Lance knew that Allura was strong, that she could fight, but there was also something so…angelic about her, to put it simply. He could absolutely understand why the Arusians thought that she was their goddess. It really did fit. From the way she carried herself, to her beyond beautiful appearance, to her magical powers, she was just  _ amazing _ . People like her really didn’t deserve all the crap she got. That was why they  _ had _ to find her.

For just a brief moment, Lance pictured himself bursting through the door of whatever prison she was trapped in, and single-handedly taking down all of the Galra, including Zarkon. She would swoon into his arms, and of course they’d get married and live happily ever after.

With a shake of his head, Lance went back to analyzing the exterior of the ship for something that could help them. He knew that the odds of Allura actually liking him in any way, shape, or form, were slim to none. She seemed to like everyone in the castleship except for him. 

Okay, he knew that he might flirt a little too much with her at times, but he couldn’t help himself. She was beautiful, and amazing in every way. Not only that, but she never once specifically told him to stop. Lance wasn’t a complete asshole, he would stop if someone asked him to, and he was pretty sure Allura wouldn’t tolerate him if she wasn’t at least mildly amused, right? It was very confusing.

He did the whole dancing around one another thing before, and yes, there was getting used to one another and testing out the waters, but Lance would really prefer someone more forward. Someone who knew themselves and what they wanted, and didn’t leave him guessing in the dark.

He was startled out of his thoughts when a hand landed on the back of his chair. He craned his head back and looked into Shiro’s eyes, concern rushing through him. The man looked beyond exhausted.

It was so obvious that he blamed himself for Allura’s capture, and he probably felt responsible for what happened to Keith too. That was ridiculous, because Keith’s actions were clearly his own.

(Though Lance did hear that nagging voice at that back of his mind, telling him that if he was any kind of leader, or even a worthy teammate, Keith would have listened to him and not wandered off on his own.)

No one was sleeping, though that was probably something they should do. Of course, none of them would be able to get any sleep at all, plus there was just so much left to do; every moment mattered.

Still, Shiro looked about to drop as he asked, “Anything?”

Lance shook his head, focusing on the task at hand. “I keep looking everywhere, and there are plenty of ways in, but none we can use. They’ll peg us at every entrance. Not to mention they’ve got a crazy amount of guns, and nasty tractor beams.”

Shiro sighed and shook his head, muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘patience yields focus’. Huh, Lance heard Keith muttering that to himself before.

“I don’t know if it’s smart or stupid,” Hunk spoke up, “but it looks like a lot of their defenses and guns run separately. Like they all have their own entrances and power sources.”

Their leader hummed in thought at that and looked back at Lance. “How many tractor beams are there?”

“Just the one,” he said, brow furrowing as he started to piece together an idea. “Our lions could probably take on the guns, right?”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Shiro agreed, a small smile appearing on his face. Lance might have perked up a little bit at that. “There are a lot of issues, but our lions are strong and fast with amazing defenses. Getting pinned down would be one of the worst things that could happen at this point. We need to get in and take that tractor beam down, and if we can do that without having to get into their main control, all the better.”

“That really is stupid, isn’t it?” Lance wondered out loud. “Like, here, make it easier to take this down.”

“You’d think, but no. It means that if one part goes down, the others are still working,” Pidge spoke up, eyes locked onto her computer as numbers and symbols flashed before her. “Zarkon very likely has the ability to override the controls, so we’d have to make it impossible to fix.”

“Can you do that?” Shiro asked her, and Pidge finally looked up at him, completely exasperated.

“Really? You’re asking me if I can make a program that locks him out of the system?” She stared. “Of course I can! I’ll even make backups for everyone.”

Shiro nodded, and Lance watched as he walked away and headed towards Coran. Once again, Lance felt his stomach twist as the guilt came back, wondering if there was something he could have done.

No, he knew what he should have done. Anger rushed through him as he pictured Keith going through the door, ignoring him. Maybe if they hadn’t needed to run after Keith, who wasn’t supposed to go on his own, they could have gotten to Allura faster. Maybe none of this would have happened. Come to think of it, Keith was one of the advocates for letting her go in the first place! Why couldn’t that guy just stay in his lane and do what he was supposed to do?

Then the sound of Keith’s scream echoing through the comms made Lance shudder. He  _ never _ wanted to hear that sound ever again. It was hard to stay angry at someone when they almost died. It was just a sheer stroke of luck that Keith was, apparently, not all human.

Wasn’t  _ that _ something to think about? Because while Lance didn’t want to sound like  _ that _ person, it really did seem to answer a few things about Keith that he noticed. It made him wonder what kind of alien he was. Was it Altean? That’d be a little cool actually, because it meant more Alteans survived. Lance wouldn’t mind finding out that he was a little bit Altean, though he could certainly do without the marks. Just from the spot they sat on Allura and Coran’s faces, he knew it wouldn’t look right on him.

He wondered if there were mermaid aliens, because finding out a way to breath underwater without a heavy tank would be awesome. Getting his diving license was definitely on Lance’s list of things to do when he got back home.

God, Lance wished he could keep himself together and not get completely distracted, but to be fair, he’d been over the base dozens of times already. As far as he could tell, their best bet was just going through one of the big hangars and trying to sneak in to find Allura. Maybe Voltron could have ripped through the whole thing, but they were a lion down.

Just thinking about that made his mind spiral again, and not for the first time, Lance wished that he’d gone with Keith instead of lounging around thinking about a pretty space princess. Maybe he would have been able to stop this entire mess from happening.

Lance squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, desperately trying to push all the random thoughts and feelings assaulting him away. He had a  _ job _ to do, and no thoughts of Allura or Keith were going to help.

His eyes opened again, and he took a deep breath to focus himself. He was going to find something. He had to.

…

Shiro took in Coran’s slumped shoulders, and almost felt like slouching himself. It’d been a long time since he felt quite this way, like he’d done something terribly wrong and was going to get scolded.

The last time, he lost someone very important to him, just by letting him walk away. Shiro didn’t want to let anyone down this time.

He stepped up beside Coran, and kept his voice low as he spoke, though if it was for privacy, or to not distract the other three paladins as they worked, he wasn’t quite sure. “I know you’re worried. We all are.” Shiro looked towards the floor. “I’m  _ so _ sorry I let her slip away.” Watching Allura be swarmed was going to be another addition to his nightmares, he just knew it.

“Shiro,” he spoke his name so sternly that the young man couldn’t help but look up. Coran didn’t look angry, in fact, he just looked tired. It hit Shiro then just how  _ old _ Coran actually was. Sure, he was still strong and capable, but he’d been around for a very, very long time. “It’s not your fault.”

That startled him a bit, and he was about to protest, but Coran held up a hand, and he stopped.

“Did you know I was friends with Allura’s mother while growing up?” he asked as he looked towards the star maps above him, comparing what he knew of the area from when Altea was around to now. It was startling to see just how similar it was, minus one obviously glaring difference. “Princess Melanor, later Queen Melanor, and I were thick as thieves. It’s difficult for royalty to have friends, but my family served hers for a very long time. In fact, I introduced her and Alfor.”

“Really?” For some reason, that surprised him a bit. No one really talked about Queen Melanor very much, not nearly as much as they did King Alfor. In fact, Shiro originally assumed that  _ he _ was the one born to royalty.

“Yes.” His moustache twitched as his lips rose in amusement. “Well, she actually knew  _ about _ him, and sent me to spy on him and another talented alchemist. See he was the son of one of the Lords of Altea – the planet was separated into many kingdoms that governed under the royal family – and was very prominent in the use of his alchemy. So I went to spy on him, and then introduced them.” He spoke with such fondness, that it was obvious to Shiro that he cared very much about his old friends.

The smile then faded away. “When Melanor died, I took a vow that I would protect Allura no matter what. We lost so much, and twice now I’ve almost lost her when she’s all I have. I would trade this castle and all of Voltron for her, though that would likely have her killing  _ me _ instead.”

“That sounds like her,” Shiro agreed. “Stubborn.”

“Oh, she is, and wants to be right at the heart of things. Allura has always believed in diplomacy like her mother, but wanted to be a part of the action like her father. When she was young, all she wanted to do was be a paladin, and though that wasn’t meant to be, it doesn’t surprise me at all that she’s been insisting on fighting herself. That is how I know this is not your fault. Allura makes her own choices, and we cannot invalidate them by blaming ourselves or one another.”

Shiro contemplated that, swallowing a lump that just wouldn’t leave his throat. Yes, he knew that Coran was right and would say the same to any of the others, but it was different. His heart went out to the older man, because he’d lost  _ so _ , so much already.

His eyes drifted up to the maps and felt Black’s presence around the edge of his mind. Black was always there now, to the point where he barely noticed the presence as something other than himself. It was his lion that pointed out the obvious thing that they were missing.

“We’ll get her back,” he spoke confidently. “Zarkon may know we’re coming, but we have something that he doesn’t expect: you.”

“Me?” Coran asked, positively confused.

“These maps are almost identical,” he noted. “Outside of Keistungz itself, no one would know the ins and outs of this system like you. We need to get the castleship as close as we can without them noticing us, and that’s how you can help.”

Coran stared up at the maps for a moment, cobalt eyes scanning everything critically. It felt like everyone was holding their breath until the Altean said, “Altea was a fairly warm planet. We didn’t have water like Arus on the surface, just a limited amount of ground water. The sun made it common for hot rocks and sometimes even glass to storm from the sky. This was because of our star. The radiation was quite violent, and it was common for blips in the systems and outages. The rings that were crafted around Altea were made to help lessen the impact of it, and from the looks of it, Keistungz was made similarly. There’s a chance that we may be able to use one of the bursts to hide your approach. We can wait in the atmosphere of this nearby planet, but that’s as close as we’d be able to get without them noticing us.” Coran pointed to the place in question. “We should be able to scan for Allura’s signature, as it is fairly unique.”

“That’s a lot of ifs and buts,” Lance spoke up from his spot, having stopped working to listen to them.

“It is, but it’s something we can observe if we wormhole to that world,” Pidge pointed out. “Of course, we can use Green to get close, but if they exist, those blips would likely be able to help us disguise whoever’s going inside to disable the tractor beams and rescue Allura.”

“If we do this right, we may not even have to worry about the beams,” Shiro said, crossing his arms in front of him. His hand spasmed slightly, aching more than normal. It was a shaky plan, but it was better than nothing. Wormhole to the planet, hide and scan, observe to see if the radiation of the sun impacted anything. Whether it did or not,they could take Green and get someone inside. Ideally, if the power, tracking, or anything was impacted by the violent star, they could get inside entirely unnoticed, get to Allura, and bail out. If not, they’d have to go in, then everyone outside would have to fight to give whoever was inside time to find Allura.

It was going to be  _ messy _ any way they did it, especially since they were a man down. Shiro thought about his brother, resting inside of the pod. They could really use him on this mission, but it just wasn’t possible.

“Can we actually do this?” Hunk wondered, voicing what they were all thinking. “We’re two people down.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Shiro answered him firmly.

…

It was actually a pretty common thing for Pidge to be excited for something, and to feel like vomiting at the same time. Though she would  _ never _ admit that to Hunk. It was the twist of anticipation and anxiety within her that often accompanied things such as class presentations. She was always so excited to share what she learned (when it came to science, coding, and mathematics, at least), but also dreaded it because her classmates were, to simply put in, awful.

Freak. Weirdo. Nerd. Those shouldn’t have hurt. She and Matt hurled them at one another pretty often, and they lived in one of the neighbourhoods close to the Garrison, so it wasn’t like science and technology were a weird thing. Hell, the school she went to was a specialized STEM one. Her first day there, Pidge expected to maybe make some friends with the same interests as her, but they just saw her as  _ weird _ . For some reason, that hurt coming from her peers. It wasn’t like with Matt, where she knew that her older brother loved her and didn’t mean it.

That was what she felt like now. It wasn’t a happy form of excitement, but the anticipation for what was coming, along with a huge helping of nervousness that twisted her stomach over and over again.

Pidge cast a glance over her shoulder at Hunk, who looked like he was about to hurl, so she didn’t feel too bad about her own nausea. Though she might just end Lance if he kept tapping his fingers against his armour.

Shiro said something quietly to Coran, before turning to the rest of them, his face set and stern. “Eyes front. We’ve got a plan to get Allura back, but it’s not going to be easy. We’re going to jump to the heart of the enemy, unseen and undetected.”

There was one thing that had been bothering her about this whole thing, and it just occurred to her. She raised her hand (internally cringing when she realized just what she did, because Shiro might have been a teacher once, but he wasn’t her teacher now), and asked, “Don’t we need Allura to open up a wormhole?”

“Yes and no,” Coran answered with a shake of his head. “Allura’s quintessence is special, and it makes it much easier to power the ship. In fact, she can power it to jump multiple times even when she’s not here.” He held open his hands. “It would take a while for me to charge the castle on my own, so to speak. Allura likes to keep the castle ready to go if there’s an emergency, so that will help me make the jump. However, I will only be able to make a singular jump without her.”

They all looked up as the star system in question came up. “Altea’s system has changed much over the past 5,000 decaphoebs, but some planets still remain. We will appear in this gas giant, where we will be hidden. When the sun’s solar flares lash out, you’ll be hidden by that enough to sneak into here.”

“We’ll be using Green, since she can shield us.” Shiro looked towards Pidge, who tensed in anticipation. “When we get to the system, we’re going to immediately scan Keistungz to see if the radiation does impact it. Either way, do you have those viruses ready?”

“Yes.” She held up five different external drives that she tossed together – all colour coded, of course. “There’s one for each of us, just in case. Don’t try to plug this into something else, as it might just break everything. If we need to shut down the tractor beam, uploading this will make it impossible for Zarkon to get it back up from central command.”

“But could they go back down to that control room and get it going again?” Lance asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow at her.

Pidge waved her hand at him. “Just wreck the console, it won’t matter. The more damage we can do to them, the better.”

“Hopefully we can get in completely undetected. They’re expecting us and will no doubt be on high alert, but it’s been a long time since anyone challenged the Galra,” Shiro noted, eyes moving from one person to the next. “Zarkon may know Voltron, but he’s still likely to underestimate us. For all we know, they’re aware that we’re a paladin down. That’s something we  _ need  _ to keep in mind right now too. It’s just the four of us right now, and Coran needs to keep the castle hidden so we can try to escape as soon as we get Allura. We don’t have any back up coming.”

“So what do you want us all to do?” Lance asked him, voice grim.

“You and Hunk are going to hang at the edge of the atmosphere, still out of range, but ready to go at a moment’s notice.” Pidge’s spine straightened as Shiro looked towards her. “We’re going to take Green, and you’re going to drop me on the base, and I’m going to get inside and find Allura. Ideally, I’ll be able to get Allura and we’ll be able to get out before being detected.” Shiro paused for a moment, brow furrowing slightly. “I think it’s safe to say that we shouldn’t expect this to happen. That’s why Pidge will take Green and stay close to the control room to the emergency exit by the tractor beam’s control room. She’ll sneak inside, shut it down, and upload the virus while Hunk and Lance attack everything else from the outside.”

“Shouldn’t I do that anyway? Not just as a precaution?” Pidge asked as she tried to get a hold of her nerves.

“No,” Shiro’s answer was firm and left no room for argument. “We can still hope that I can get to Allura while avoiding detection, and the best way to do that is to have as few moving pieces as we can so no one gets left behind again.”

“Alright.” She didn’t entirely agree with that, but Pidge could appreciate it. Logically, if she and Shiro went in, that was doubling the odds of detection, even if she didn’t have to go far. To get to the tractor beam consoles, she’d still have to bypass some guards. Pidge really wanted to avoid that if she could. A sudden thought occurred to her. “The virus I put on those USB sticks everyone has is designed to interrupt communication and frequencies, so if you can put that in a console somewhere else, it might help you. It’s based on Galra tech, but who knows how long it’ll last. It definitely won’t take down that entire base, especially given all the different complicated systems, but better than nothing, right?”

Shiro smiled at her, that genuinely proud one that made her want to preen a little bit. “That’s awesome Pidge. It could be a great distraction if we need one at any point.” He turned to Coran next. “Are you ready?”

The Altean walked towards the podium Allura normally stood at, placing his hands on the controls. Pidge braced herself as the wormhole opened up in front of them a few moments later, knowing that this was potentially a one-way trip. If they didn’t get Allura, they wouldn’t be able to get away.

Pidge swallowed and watched as light flashed around them, and then they appeared in swirling orange and yellow clouds.

Coran brought a screen up in front of him, and rapidly typed in a few commands. A moment later, a slightly more detailed image of Keistungz appeared in front of them, and honestly, Pidge was still amazed with the technology in the castle. It got such a clear scan when they couldn’t even  _ see _ it. It was kind of amazing.

A small pink dot appeared on it. “I’m detecting Allura’s energy signature here. It seems like she’s in a holding cell.” He frowned. “I would have thought that Zarkon might have kept her with him.”

“It’s either a trap, or he thinks it doesn’t matter,” Shiro concluded, which was a pretty fair assessment, given the information they had. “And you know what? He’s right, it doesn’t matter. We’re not leaving without her.” He turned to the rest of them. “Get to your lions.”

Hunk and Lance both nodded and quickly went to Yellow and Blue. Pidge waited for Shiro by the entrance that would take her to Green, still close enough to hear the two men talking. She didn’t mean to eavesdrop, even if she wasn’t actually trying very hard to ignore them, but they weren’t trying to be quiet either.

“Coran, keep an eye on Keith?”

“Of course.” Coran placed a hand on his shoulder. “He’ll be okay. He’s made of some of the strongest stuff I’ve ever seen.”

Shiro chuckled at that. “Yeah, he really is.” He turned to join her, his face completely passive and mission ready as they started towards Green. “You ready?”

Was she ready for this? No, not at all. A part of Pidge wanted to run back into her room and desperately type more messages to her mother that would never get to her. But maybe things would be okay. She saw herself and Matt back on Bataria, so they must make it out of this, right? Though the future was always in motion, so it wasn’t guaranteed.

Still, she clung to the image of herself in her armour, standing beside her brother. Despite the many fallacies of seeing the future, she wanted to believe that what she saw would come true. That meant that they had to be successful and survive this mission.

It was really the only thing keeping her going right now.

…

Haggar was a woman of deep faith. She had faith in her Emperor and his mission. She had faith in the loyalty of her druids. Most importantly, she had faith in her own mind and abilities, for they were far greater than most around her. Like her Emperor, she was eternal and would not fade away, for their strength was great.

Part of her strength was her desire to understand the universe so that she could twist everything in it to their advantage. It was only natural that she was highly curious about the petulant princess that they tossed into the holding cells. Not just because of her obvious strength and magical prowess, but because of the look she gave their Emperor.

It was a familiar look, deep with loathing and hatred. It was a naive look of those that were far too young and idealistic to see the truth of the path that her Emperor laid out before them.

Two young royals, both with so much knowledge and strength, separated by so much time, who gave the same look of pure loathing towards their Emperor.

It was a curiosity, more than a worry.  _ He _ was of no concern to them, off doing his own explorations and fruitless projects with his half-breeds.  _ She _ would be wiped out soon along with her pathetic team.

Both significant, yet insignificant in their own ways. Both so similar, yet so different. It was curious. Perhaps her Emperor would allow her to keep the Princess alive. She hadn’t been able to experiment on an Altean in several deca-phoebs.

Haggar’s attention shifted as Prorok grovelled at their Emperor’s feet, the pathetic beast that he was. These Generals that thought they were so important, but were easily replaceable. He dared think that  _ he _ could destroy Voltron? That was absurd.

“You will do no such thing,” her Emperor spoke firmly. There was no room to argue with him. “We will allow them inside of our perimeter.”

She smirked at the confusion on Prorok’s face. “Once in, they won’t get out.” She couldn’t wait for that. Haggar very much hoped that all of the paladins would survive. She so desired to study them to see if her Champion was truly unique, or if there was something special about their species. Though she never got her hands on them, the other two specimens were reportedly fragile and weak.

“Yes, sire,” Prorok said, still in a deep vow. “The other fleets have joined us, and are awaiting your command.”

“Excellent,” her Emperor said. “Ready all fleets. Move all trainees and young to the outer dormitories.”

Prorok visibly faltered at that. “Sire?”

“They are weak and sentimental,” Haggar spoke up, though she shouldn’t have to. These facts should be obvious, and their Emperor should not be questioned. Perhaps Prorok was a bit of a sentimental fool himself. “They will not attack those they deem vulnerable. The young will take great pride in their contribution to our success.” It was, after all, what they were made for from the beginning.

The Galra that did things the old way were weak, not like them. Their way was strong, and would bring victory to them and death to those who defied them.

“Yes,” Prorok said. “Of course.”

She watched him leave, not impressed in the slightest. Ranveig or Sendak would have been better here, but the former was in his station far away, and the latter was now a failure. It mattered not, because they would not fail now.

Their fleet was prepared, having come from across the Empire quite quickly when the order was put out. Even if Voltron were to appear, their numbers were higher, their strength greater. Not that Voltron would appear, as they were likely a paladin down.

That was another one she couldn’t wait to sink her claws into. Her druid said that the one in red was doused in raw quintessence with his flesh exposed, and was seemingly still alive the last they saw. That was very interesting. She hoped that it survived, though she supposed she could do something with the corpse as well if it passed.

Either way, it was highly unlikely that they would have their red lion.

She looked to attention as her Emperor turned to her. “Prepare your druids. We will reach out to the Black Lion when they arrive.”

Haggar bowed her head, understanding what he meant. The lions were far more than simple ore and minerals, twisted with technology to form great warships. They were something more. They had a life almost unlike anything else in their universe. Beings of creation that had their own world and connections within themselves that they could exploit.

Lips curled up into a cruel smirk. They just had to infiltrate it, and thanks to her Emperor’s experience with the Black Lion, she knew exactly how to do that.

…

Hunk stared at the scans before him, not  _ entirely _ sure what he was seeing. Yellow and Blue floated in the atmosphere, ready to charge at a moment’s notice. In the meantime, he looked at the updated schematics and scans of Keistungz that Coran sent them, and was more than confused.

“Hey guys, something’s definitely happening there,” he noted into the comms.

A screen popped up in front of him, revealing Pidge and Shiro. “What’s up?”

“It looks like there are a lot of heat signatures going close to the outsides of the ship instead of the core.” He bit his lip. “I think…it might sound crazy…but I think they’re making a human shield—Galra shield. Whatever.”

“What? Like with kids and stuff?” Lance asked as his screen opened too, brow furrowed with disgust. That didn’t at all come as a surprise to Hunk. Lance loved kids. 

“They’re just Galra,” Pidge said with a wave of her hand. 

A frown marred Hunk’s features and he shook his head. “And humans nearly destroyed our own planet with greed and selfishness. Climate impacts, then mass poverty, then the war, then a man-made disease taking a lot of others out. That was all humans. Still, we’re not all bad, are we?”

Pidge looked like she wanted to argue, while Shiro just looked thoughtful. However, she shrugged her shoulders after a moment and said, “Okay, that’s fair.”

“Zarkon must be hoping that we’ll hesitate to attack,” Shiro explained to them, which made a lot of sense, and was also true.

“We were never planning on it, just the ships,” Hunk noted as he tapped his fingers on the controls to try and get his nerves in-check. God, he wanted to vomit over everything, but he couldn’t, this was too important.

That and it was something he and Yellow were working on. In the mornings, after checking on the turtle egg, he would go to Yellow and they would work in his hangar on calming techniques.

A bit of pride rumbled from his lion as Yellow reminded him that he had done a good job so far. It was enough to calm Hunk down again. It was terrifying, but they had the ability to help others, and they couldn’t turn back just because they were a little bit (a lot) afraid.

His fingers flexed around the controls again as they waited for a signal that would hopefully never come.

…

The projections of Keistungz didn’t do it justice at all. It was honestly a  _ marvel _ to see. It was a ship, but at the same time it was a planet. Well, it was probably more about the size of their Earth moon, but it was still much better than any other ship they came across. 

The fact that they could build and maintain something so big was pretty mind boggling when Pidge let herself think of it. No wonder they had to keep their systems separate. It would be bad news for them if one thing went down, and caused the rest to go too.

Not only was it huge, but it was surrounded by warships. It took some serious maneuvering to get Green through, but thanks to the violent solar flares and radiation from the nearby star, they went entirely undetected, just as planned. If Pidge was honest, she thought the whole plan was a bit wonky and rushed, but knew that they needed to just move now, kind of like when she was dealing with that tiger thing back on Bataria. She was just thankful that Green was able to fly through the massive amount of ships without hitting anything, which would surely give them away. Their wonky plan really was working

“The lions were never able to become invisible in the past,” Shiro pointed out when she voiced her thoughts. “That’s entirely you, and I doubt Zarkon would expect anyone to try and modify the lions.”

Green made a noise of agreement in Pidge’s mind, the lion reminding her again that she was very happy with the upgrades and would love to continue doing so in the future. It made Pidge feel a little giddy, which was better than nervous.

“Try to be okay,” she said to Shiro as they approached the garbage shoot. “You have to help me find my brother.”

He smiled back at her, and squeezed her shoulder. “Stay close, and be vigilant.”

It only occurred to Pidge after Shiro left the cockpit that he didn’t answer her. He didn’t give her any reassurances that he’d be okay, and she didn’t like that at all.

She just wanted them to get Allura out so they could all get away together.

…

Shiro was beyond thankful for the fact that all ships, Galra and Altean, had advanced decontamination features at every entrance. The Galra ones were incredibly simple, almost like a blast of air.

He entered through the garbage shoot, his suit filtering out the no doubt rancid smell. The sanitization got rid of anything that would have been on the outside. Shiro didn’t know how good a Galra’s sense of smell was, though he assumed it was better than most humans, and didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

That wasn’t the only thing to be thankful for. Their entire society was clearly built around a very strict, stratocratic Empire under the rule of the same tyrant for the past 5,000 years, which meant that  _ everything _ was structured the same way. Why fix something that’s not broken?

It made sense, because their Empire was  _ so _ wide spread that there would have to be the same strict training, rules, regulations. It would be easy for a population to break away from them without that. Given that no one had been able to successfully overthrow them for 5,000 years, he doubted any of them would have seen the similarities and patterns as a weakness.

That was Shiro’s gain. It made it easy for him to slink through the shadows unnoticed by the sentries, though he did notice that there were a lot more actual Galra there as opposed to only sentries. That made sense though, if this was their homeworld.

Though it felt awfully cold for a homeworld, literally and metaphorically. Everything was the same dark metal (Shiro was sure that Galra could likely see better in low light) as on the ships, but it wasn’t just that. He couldn’t imagine children and families there. It seemed more like a factory than anything else. It was kind of sad.

Maybe the Galra needed to be saved from Zarkon just as much as the rest of the universe did.

Shiro managed to creep past everything so far, staying in the darkest of shadows and keeping as low a profile as possible. As cool as they looked, he wished the armour of their suits wasn’t a brilliant white. Blending into the background more would have been really nice at that point.

Every once in a while, Shiro would stop and look at his gauntlet, keeping the light dim. With the scans of the castle, and the information he got thanks to Allura’s sacrifice, they had a basic floor plan that he hoped wasn’t out of date. The Galra were smart, not relying only on elevators (or zip lines), and instead had basic stairs as well. They were wide, no doubt to accommodate a large amount of troops if needed, and tall enough for their longer leg span. It would have been exhausting if Shiro was anyone else, but he was  _ different _ now. Yes, the muscles in his arms were already aching, but Shiro noticed things within himself now that he doubted were just his experiences in the arena. He was stronger and faster now, his instincts sharper than ever before. Yes, part of it was the intense training so that he could survive the arena, but it also felt like  _ more _ than that.

Shiro actually wasn’t too far from Allura’s location, and couldn’t help but think that this was going oddly smooth. Creepily smooth. Just thinking about it caused anxiety to well up within him, because something was going to go wrong. He could feel it in him.

He paused, the fear and terror creeping up within him, making his stomach twist. That was when Shiro realized something. This weird and wrongness wasn’t his own fear that he was feeling, this was  _ Black _ .

Pure panic exploded in his mind, and Shiro found himself falling. Falling back into the arena as enemies surrounded him, and he  _ screamed _ .

…

Power rushed through Haggar’s body as she and her druids empowered their Emperor with the strength he needed.

It was an ancient practice created at her Emperor’s request. The connections to the lions were stronger and more complex than these new paladins could ever hope to understand. Her Emperor knew better though. He knew how to reach the Black Lion from afar, but due to the beast’s stubbornness, he required the extra strength that only she could provide.

He may not yet be able to touch the lion physically, but he could probe the creature’s mind, the very safe place it created for itself. So long as she had his physical body, Haggar could reach this place that her Emperor told her about so long ago.

“The Black Paladin is here!” Haggar’s interest piqued at those words, mildly impressed but not surprised. Of course her Champion managed to get through almost undetected. It would have been more impressive if they hadn’t purposely left their defenses open for Voltron to come to them. “He appears to be in pain, though from what, we do not know.”

Glowing eyes focused on her Emperor, and Haggar knew exactly what was happening. Though she desired to once again have her Champion in her grasp, that could wait. If he was here, the Black Lion was no doubt very close by.

“Engage the solar barrier immediately,” her Emperor’s voice echoed from where he was surrounded by their combined power. “We will not let them leave.” He focused again, and she helped guide him to the Black Lion.

Even if this method failed now, it mattered not. Voltron was already within their grasp.

….

Hearing Shiro scream sent pure terror through Lance’s body, his mind instantly flashing back to hours before, where he heard something similar from Keith, only to find out that he had almost died.

“Shiro?” Pidge called out, getting no answer in response. “Shiro what—what the heck was  _ that _ ?” She sounded completely distracted, and more than a little worried.

Given that they were still hidden within the atmosphere of the planet, neither Lance nor Hunk could know what she was talking about.

“It appears to be some kind of barrier,” Coran answered from the castleship. “It’s surrounding nearly the entire system. We’re trapped.” He hesitated for a moment before adding, “Something’s wrong with the Black Lion. It keeps thrashing and roaring. Either it’s responding to Shiro, or it’s causing whatever’s wrong with him.”

“Let’s go, Hunk,” Lance said, making a decision on the spot. He tightened his hands on the controls, and felt Blue’s agreement wash over him.

“Woah wait, what?” Hunk demanded, his voice pitching higher. “But the plan—”

“You heard him scream. There’s no way they don’t know he’s there. Pidge, try to get in to upload the virus thingy. Hunk, ready to go cause hell?” Lance asked him, feeling his own stomach twist despite how confident he was making himself sound. He couldn’t let on just how much he was internally freaking out. “Coran said they put up something to block us in, they gotta know we’re here. We’re sticking to the plan.”

“Alright. Alright, let’s go.” Hunk sounded like he was ready to puke, but both of them urged their lions forward.

It was decided that they’d circle around and come around the back of the planet so that no one would know the exact location of the castle. They looped around quickly before launching themselves into the fray without any hesitation, immediately opening fire on the ships around them.

“Oh no, oh no,” Hunk muttered under his breath as they started to fire back. Lance ignored him, focusing on the fight, because there were way more ships than they anticipated. It was like Zarkon sent out a message to rally more ships just because Voltron was coming.

Actually, that was probably what he did, Lance realized through gritted teeth. There were so,  _ so _ many of them.

Pidge suddenly cried out in alarm. Lance wheeled around in her direction, realizing in horror that she’d been hit in the crossfire, her invisibility cloak thingy disappeared, instantly making her a visible target.

“Did you get in?” he asked as she started fighting back.

“No.” She sounded more than a little furious. “And the tractor beam is firing on us, so avoid it.” She took her frustrations out on one of the bigger ships, tearing it to shreds.

This whole thing would have been so much easier if they had Voltron, but there was only the three of them, and they’d have to make due.

…

“Enough.”

Haggar immediately stilled her magic, her druids following suit as they waited for word on what to do next. Emperor Zarkon turned towards her, eyes glowing a vibrant purple with power. “The Black Lion refuses to move for now, so we will make it. Attack the three lions with full force. They’re creatures of attachment, and the Black one will come for them. Go!” Those who had been waiting in the room now rushed to relay Zarkon's orders to the commanders and generals, running as they should.

“Haggar.” She looked at him eagerly. “I will task you with finding the Black Paladin.”

Her lips tilted up into a dark smirk. “As you wish.” She bowed and hurriedly left. It was an honour to serve, of course, but Haggar had to admit that there was personal excitement here. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on her Champion once again.

…

The battle, Coran realized, was an absolute mess. The Voltron Lions were incredibly powerful, few things could take them on one-on-one, but they were being overwhelmed, and it wasn’t like their current paladins had decades of experience with them.

Shiro had yet to respond, and though Black stopped thrashing, the quintessence levels from the hangar kept going fluctuating rapidly.

He could hear Lance, Hunk, and Pidge shouting at one another, though Shiro was jarringly silent now.

“Pidge!” Lance yelled, and Coran quickly brought up a screen to see that she was caught in the tractor beam. With some quick ice power, they were able to disrupt it temporarily so that she could escape, but it was a close one. He needed to get out there and help them with the castle’s firepower. They  _ needed _ to shut that thing down before all of the lions were caught in it. Everyone was busy though.

Coran bit his lip. There was  _ one _ person left, but it could be dangerous. Very dangerous. Except, if this went sideways, they were all going to die anyway.

With a grim demeanor, Coran quickly left the command deck, taking the shortcuts to get down to the medbay as quickly as possible.

Keith was just as still as he left him earlier (which was good, waking up too early in a pod and being stuck in it was horrific). Coran brought up the stats and looked at them. Heart and brainwaves were elevated, but not nearly as bad as they were earlier. He wasn’t  _ great _ , but he was much better than earlier. It would be better to leave him in, but he was also decently sure that Keith would be able to function.

A human probably couldn’t, but he wasn’t human, was he? And from what Coran saw of modern Galra tech, it seemed like all a person needed was some Galra DNA to make things work. Such a flaw only came with pure arrogance over the fact that none would oppose them. Coran would know, it was similar to how Alteans approached most of their tech.

Zarkon likely thought they were a paladin down. No one would see this coming.

Mind made up, Coran reasoned that he’d keep an eye on him later to make sure there were no extreme symptoms of consequences from quintessence poisoning or anything (he was honestly surprised that Keith’s hair hadn’t turned white from the exposure, but that was likely because only his hands had been directly exposed). He reached up, and started the process of waking him up.

When the pod opened, Keith gasped, his eyes shot open before closing again. He groaned and pressed his hands to his head, stumbling forward and into Coran’s arms. He was shaking as they both sank to the floor, but he was definitely awake.

“Keith? Can you hear me?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

He grunted, shuddering as he tried to move his hands from his eyes, but then pressed them back. “It’s so bright. Everything’s bright. Make it stop.”

Bright? Oh. He knew what this was. “You were exposed to quintessence. You’re likely seeing a lot of it right now.” Alteans were taught how to ignore the glow that surrounded most things, but without training, it would no doubt be brutal. Perhaps he should have left him in the pod. He wasn’t going to be much help this way.

There was a deep rumble through the castle, and for a moment, Coran thought that something had attacked them, but Keith’s shoulders relaxed under Coran’s grip. “Red.”

“Red?” Coran mimed before realizing that he was likely referring to the lion. That must have been what he heard.

Slowly, Keith blinked his eyes open, grimacing a little bit. Coran was startled to see that the sclera of his eyes were yellow, the pupils narrowed into slits from the bright light. A few more blinks, and Keith’s eyes looked entirely human again, barring the colour. That was interesting. Galra may be diverse, but they were not shapeshifters.

Keith’s breathing calmed, and Coran could actually see the quintessence around him shift slightly and settle back to close to what it used to be. It was always a little more wild than the other paladins, but moments ago it was nearly blinding even to him. Now it was definitely a little more out of control, but not nearly as bad.

“Red said she’d help me,” Keith muttered under his breath, clearly still not 100%. “What—what’s going on?”

Coran stood, helping Keith to his feet and steadying him. “You were doused in far too much quintessence and had to be in a pod, and I woke you up sooner than I should have, but the situation is dire. Zarkon has Allura. Shiro went to get her but no there’s no word on him. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge are fighting, but they need help.”

Bless his heart, Keith took that all in stride and nodded his head, just rolling with the situation that was no doubt confusing. “I’ll go help them.”

“No, I’m going to help them. Everyone likely thinks that you’re down, so we’re going to use that. Let’s get you into your armour.” Coran had to fetch the second set that he made after throwing out the damaged, quintessence-soaked ones anyway.

He explained the situation with the tractor beam and Pidge’s virus as they got ready. It wasn’t lost on Coran that even with Red’s help, Keith was still a little bit shaky, not that the young man let that stop him from tugging on his armour and taking the usb that Pidge left behind.

“Pidge programmed a few of the pods with the invisibility cloaks. Since they uncovered her, it’s likely that they’ll be looking for other things, and we don’t want them to get a hold of her tech, so I recommend flying it as close as you can, and then ejecting. Use it as a projectile, but only after securing your safety. I’m going to fly the castle forward at the same time, so people shouldn’t notice you, but we still must proceed with caution. Do you understand?” He was not about to send Keith on a suicide run, and it was very important that he understand that. “That means you won’t have a way off.”

“I need to get on the ship to help the others,” Keith answered confidently. “And I won’t need a way out, trust me on that.” The Red Lion had come for him for less, so that was a fair assessment.

“Be careful, Keith,” Coran cautioned him. He knew this was the right thing to do, but it still didn’t sit well with him sending someone out who was essentially sick at the moment.

“It’s okay,” Keith muttered to him, not making any promises about his own safety. “The mission is more important right now.”

Coran both agreed and disagreed with that statement. It was true, but it didn’t feel right at all.

…

Shiro felt like his head had been split open. He could feel hands on him as he thrashed, mind unable to focus on anything. He could feel fear and rage pulsing through him, the urge to fight more prevalent than ever.

The loud screeching of the sirens and the flashing purple lights did absolutely nothing to help him. Shiro could hear Black whispering into his mind, though it wasn’t really like a whisper. When Black wanted you to know something, you knew it. Black was telling him that he needed to fight, to attack, to stop all of this right now.

With a guttural scream of rage, Shiro lashed out with his glowing hand, ripping through the sentries around him blindly.

(He’d look back on the moment later on, wondering if they were sentries or not, but didn’t let himself think on it too much.)

Once he was free from his captors’ clutches, he  _ ran _ . His mind latched onto the only thing it could comprehend: find Allura. Everything would be okay if he could just find her, then they could get away from these hell-forsaken creatures.

Black purred at the conclusion.

Shiro took one last glance at his gauntlet to see just how close he was (he was almost there), and then he  _ ran _ . He ran faster than he ever had before, needing to find her to get out of there.

He skidded to a stop when a massive metal door slammed down behind him. That, in any way, shape, or form, was not a good sign.

A chuckle echoed through the air, causing Shiro to tense up. He looked around to see a hunched figure in a long, flowing robe around what appeared to be a frail form. Her head tilted up, yellow eyes glowing from beneath. “So the Champion returns.”

Suddenly, Shiro was on a metal table, strapped down as he screamed and pleaded for it to stop, for the pain to go away. Yes, he knew  _ exactly _ who this was. “ _ You _ .” Rage pulsated through him, because she was the one that had done this to him. What he was now, it was her fault.

That wasn’t acceptable, Black reminded him. She was evil, and she had to go.

Shiro launched himself at her, arm glowing brilliantly. Just as his fist was about to hit her, she vanished in a twist of black smoke, appearing not far from him. He lashed out at her again and again as her cruel laughter cackled around him.

He wasn’t going to let her get away.

…

“I’ve got a lock on Shiro again,” Pidge’s voice came over the comms as she apparently multitasked between attacking and keeping track of things at the same time. “He’s closer to Allura, but still not close enough. We need to get her out.”

The screen appeared in front of Hunk, and he quickly looked it over. “She’s right there?” He glanced at the ship, easily able to find the spot in question while Lance and Pidge talked about trying to hack cargo bays and everything.

“We don’t have time for that!” Hunk argued, because this fight wasn’t getting any better, and the longer they were out there, the worse it was going to be.

“Do  _ you _ have a better idea?” Pidge demanded, voice sharp and skeptical. That both kind of hurt but was also fair. His plans weren’t exactly stellar, and he was about ready to take off not too long ago.

The thing is though, he knew that they had to help, and this wasn’t the time for fear. He thought about Allura, not as a princess, but as the girl who spoke to him about engineering, and who showed him how to create a habitat for his future pet turtle. They  _ couldn’t _ leave her there as a prisoner.

Allura was hope, he realized. Allura was proof that Zarkon couldn’t entirely destroy the good things he set out to abolish. Allura was hope that there was still life underneath a dying surface, hope that they could all have together, but that she could lead them too.

Mind made up, Hunk looked at the readout of Keistungz’s makeup. Yellow thought about the plan for a moment before swiftly agreeing. “Actually, yes I do.”

He immediately flew close to the spot where Allura was being held and full-on  _ slammed _ Yellow through the side of it, the lion’s large head tearing through the hull without much difficulty. Hunk wasted no time in running down the ramp, bayard in hand, shooting the second that Yellow opened his mouth.

The sentries went down with ease, and Hunk quickly pulled up a map to check his location. “I’m really close to Allura.”

“Alright, we’ll watch your butt,” Lance answered him, which was really comforting. He trusted his team to have his back. 

Pushing his fear aside, he started running. As he ran, he heard Lance suddenly curse, something he didn’t do often.

“Pidge! Get out of there!” Lance yelled at her, spiking Hunk’s anxiety.

“I’m kind of stuck!” She snapped back. There was then a massive explosion, and the entire ship shook, and Lance let out a whoop.

“What was that?” Hunk asked as he shot down a few more sentries. Why had he left Lance and Pidge together? Those two were more chaotic than leaving Keith and Lance together.

“Coran just showed up to help kick ass!” Lance cheered.

That was both good and bad. It meant there was absolutely no backup. Not to mention there was no telling what could happen to Keith if something went wonky in the castle.

He’d just have to hurry so that they could get out of here.

…

Haggar surrounded him. There was no escape from her chilling, wrong presence. Nowhere to run from, nowhere to safely turn his back to. She was sick and twisted and needed to go.

Black purred in agreement with Shiro’s manic thoughts, as if stroking the embers of the idea to create a blazing flame.

So Shiro lashed out with his glowing arm. Again and again he tried to hit her, but again and again the witch disappeared into twisting dark smoke.

“I saved your life,” her voice came from behind him, but when Shiro swung around, she was gone. “You were  _ dying _ , and I made you strong. I gave you life beyond what your own base nature did. This is how you repay me?”

That made him pause for only a split second, because it was true, wasn’t it? He was dying, and then for a while he knew he was stronger than ever. Though he’d always been a bigger man, broad-shouldered and tall, he was never quite so muscular. It was hard when his own muscles were slowly wearing away. She extended his life, and it meant that he got to see Earth at least one last time, he got to be free for a little bit longer, to be part of something amazing, to see his little brother again.

That was all fading, more rapidly than ever, Black pressed into his mind. He might have lived even longer naturally. Now, no matter how stable Black tried to make him, time was slipping through his fingers rapidly.

Shiro didn’t owe this bitch a goddamn thing.

He attacked again, but the small pause was enough for her to get the jump on him. Shiro was thrown backwards, skidding across the ground. He groaned from the impact, since even though his armour protected him, it still ached, and he could already feel his arm and chest muscles protesting in agony from the abuse.

“You could have been our greatest weapon,” Haggar hissed from where she loomed above him. “I can’t have this version of you get into the hands of anyone else.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Shiro saw the violet light, and leapt to his feet just on time to be able to avoid the crackling magic that streaked by him. He rolled out of the way and then launched himself to his feet and at her, but the image twisted and shifted, and suddenly Shiro found himself staring at himself.

The other-him was dressed in that torn, bloody prison garb he tossed away back on Earth. His teeth were sharpened to points; his eyes glowing the same yellow as the Galra.

This wrong version of him grabbed him by the neck and lifted him high into the air. Shiro gasped and struggled with the hand at his throat.

“We belong to her. She created us,” the not-him said, sounding positively demonic. In an act of pure desperation, Shiro’s arm started to glow and he took a swing at the figure holding him.

That was when he fell. It felt like he was plummeting forever, but it also happened almost instantaneously. Gasping out loud as he slammed into the floor, Shiro could see the witch coming towards him again.

Pure panic rushed through him. No, he didn’t belong to her, and he never wanted to go back. He couldn’t go back. He would rather die than end up in her operating room again, or on the bloody stage in the arena. He knew he’d never survive it again, so it was better to die by his own volition.

Shiro’s moves were clumsy in his desperation to get away from her. His chest hurt so bad, and he could barely breathe. His vision narrowed onto her, but she was everywhere again, fully circling him in rings and rings of Haggar with nowhere to escape. All he could do was fight like the caged animal that he was.

A scream of pain escaped Shiro’s lips as her sharp, glowing talons sliced clean through the flexible armour at his side. He stumbled back, holding onto his side as he hit the ground.

…

Allura’s arms were wrapped around her legs, hugging them close to her chest. Her vibrant eyes were focused on the door, never wavering as she waited. For what, she wasn’t entirely sure. For her enemies, for her friends, who knew? What she did know was that if those creatures—druids—came through there, or if Zarkon himself did, she wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Though her skin was thick and strong, not soft and delicate like that of a human, she was still sore and tired. Allura desperately wanted to curl in on herself and sleep, but that wasn’t a possibility. She was going to fight with everything that she had in her.

Waiting wasn’t normally her style. For preaching the importance of diplomacy, Allura knew that she herself had a lack of patience. It was something that her father and others pointed out to her as she grew. It wasn’t her fault that she was a woman of action. Whether fighting or in talks, she wanted to get things done. Sometimes that meant playing along with different customs, and she could make herself seem like the most patient person in the world, but that was different.

“Come on,” she muttered under her breath, willing something to happen. The alarms went off earlier, making her spine straighten as she mentally prepared herself. In all honesty, Allura expected Zarkon to come for her and use her as a hostage, but nothing happened. Perhaps that alarm wasn’t due to her paladins. For all she knew, maybe Galra liked the sound. They seemed like the type to like something that gave others anxiety.

Then there was a loud bang as the walls rattled around her. Allura jumped to her feet, not sure what was happening as sentries ran by her, but her heart was racing. All at once, she hoped that this was what she thought, and she also dreaded it.

Then there was an explosion in her hallway, and she found herself staring through the small window on the cell at a wonderfully, horribly familiar yellow and white helmet.

“Hunk!” He skidded to a stop outside of her door and looked directly at her. Though it was a bit hard to see his eyes through the reflection of his helmet, she still tried to focus on him. Allura struggled to keep her voice calm, forcing down her unnecessary tears. “What are you doing here?”

“Did you really think we weren’t coming for you?” he asked her with a shake of his head. “That kind of hurts. Of course we weren’t going to let you go without a fight. Now move out of the way so I can blow this door off.”

Well aware that the bayards did, in fact, have the ability to do that, Allura was quick to move as far away from the door’s future trajectory as possible. She instinctively flinched at the shrieking of metal as the door flew open, slamming into the wall she’d been leaning against moments ago.

“Come on.” Hunk reached his hand out to her, and though it wasn’t necessary, Allura still took it. Warmth overtook her, and despite the fact that it was only Hunk there, she felt  _ safe _ again. That safety allowed her to feel confident. It allowed her to feel  _ angry _ .

“Tell me you didn’t bring Voltron straight to Zarkon’s central command!”

“I mean, technically no.” Hunk tilted his head as he fiddled with his gauntlet. A map was projected in front of them, showing yellow and pink dots side-by-side (presumably them), and a purple one not too far away. “Black and Red are still in the castle. Keith’s in an induced coma, and we have to get to Shiro like, now.”

What the quiznak kind of trouble had they gotten into without her? Allura grabbed Hunk’s gauntlet and pulled her earring close to it, allowing it to calibrate properly with their comms. Almost immediately, she was assaulted by Shiro’s agonized cry.

“I did  _ not _ get captured by Zarkon just for Shiro to end up hurt,” she growled, and started heading in the direction Hunk’s map indicated. Seriously, they were absolutely ridiculous and utterly lost without her.

“Allura!” Lance’s voice came from over the comms. “Are you okay?”

“Perfectly fine,” she dismissed him. There was no need to worry about her. “Coran, can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, Princess,” he answered, as chipper as always. It was good to see that he was always ready to go.

“Can we make a wormhole jump?” she asked as they pressed forward.

“Negative. I haven’t been able to recharge it myself,” Coran informed her. That was highly unfortunate, but it just meant that she needed to get back to the castle as soon as possible. Perhaps they should look into some sort of experiment that magnified powers such as Coran’s.

“We’re heading towards Shiro,” Hunk told everyone else. “Then we’ll get back to Yellow and bail out.”

“Won’t be so easy,” Pidge insisted, sounding more than a little strained. “That stupid tractor beam has crazy range. I don’t think Yellow will be able to pass it now.”

That certainly was problematic. Allura’s mind raced to think of a solution, but before she could get too lost in her thoughts, Coran spoke up instead. “Not a problem. I sent Number 4 to take care of it.”

There was a moment’s pause before Lance spluttered, “ _ Keith _ ? As in was put into a coma because he was doused in quintessence and should have  _ died _ , Keith?”

He what? What the quiznak happened when she was gone? This is exactly why she couldn’t leave them all alone.

“He’ll be fine. Up a bit earlier than recommended, but nothing he can’t handle.”

“Um, maybe we should rethink that?” Hunk suggested as he shot at several more sentries.

“Oh, he’s already on the ship.”

Well wasn’t that just lovely? They had two idiot brothers to find now. Allura groaned, but they continued towards Shiro. That was all they could do for now.

…

Everything was far too bright, and Keith honestly thought that he was going to vomit. His first couple minutes out of the pod were the worst ones he ever experienced physically. It was even worse than the time he fell off a roof and broke his leg. He still blamed Griffin for that.

Red was his saviour. Whatever she was doing, it made him able to function without everything glowing so intensely that he could see things clearly even with his eyes open. The castle was awful, and Coran hadn’t been much better.

It was still brighter than normal, and as he maneuvered the invisible pod to Keistungz, it was hard to focus. Red had his back once again, keeping him steady. He could do this as long as he had her.

Keith longed to get his lion to come to him so that he could help Pidge and Lance, but he needed to do this, and without getting caught.

He braced himself as Keistungz loomed closer, then quickly ejected, allowing the pod to slam into the side as if it were just another piece of debris flying around. Keith used his jetpack to get to the side, making his way to the door and slipping inside.

Normally, he would be one to fight through the sentries, but Keith knew his own limits, and knew that there was no way he’d be able to complete the mission if he got caught. He felt lethargic, yet he also felt like there was adrenaline pulsing through him. Whether he was going to collapse in on himself, or explode outward, Keith wasn’t sure. He just knew that he didn’t like it.

Keeping himself in the shadows wasn’t that hard. Everything was completely chaotic, which should have put the sentries on higher alert, but instead just proved to be a great distraction. The flashing lights and the sirens made his head throb, but Keith kept going.

Red purred in his mind, silently assuring him that she had his back, and that he’d be okay. If his sense of duty was never enough, Keith knew that she’d be able to keep him going and was glad to know that she was there for him.

Taking a calming breath, Keith used the map projected from his gauntlet to get into the control room. Before he even got in the door, he knew that there was an actual Galra officer in there and not a sentry. It was strange. Was this what Allura normally felt? If so, it was both helpful and a bit unsettling.

It felt weird. It didn’t feel lively like Coran and the mice had on the castle ship, or like the lions. It was almost…artificial in a way, but still different from the sentries.

Keith’s sword appeared in his hand, and he launched himself at the Galra the second that the door slid open. The bayards were made to be powerful and cut through most metals, but his thin, rapier-like sword was made to be lethal at close-range like this, where he could get it right through the joints of the armour.

It reminded Keith about how impressive Altean armour like what he was wearing was. Though in different pieces, it all melded seamlessly together until he wanted to take them off. It was a little unsettling if he let himself think about it, but he had no intention of thinking about it at the moment. Just like he had no intention of dwelling on the dead Galra on the floor.

Keith’s helmet translated the Galra text easily, and it wasn’t lost on him that the system was responding to him all too easily (though again, it made him curious about the armour because  _ how _ his dna could be scanned through it was weird). The tractor beam shut off, and he inserted the red usb Coran gave him. He hoped that Pidge’s virus really fucked shit up.

He took a step back from the console, but paused for a moment. Someone could very easily come back in and start everything again, which would mess them up a lot since that stupid beam had a long range and was  _ powerful _ . They wanted to be able to get out as quickly as possible.

That really only left one option. He used his bayard and destroyed the console. He was sure he activated some other kind of alarm, but there was enough happening right now for him not to be worried, especially since all he had to do was get out, and he already knew where to go.

It took Keith only moments to get back to the exit, but when he finally got outside of the ship (held down to the surface by his boots), he came to a sudden stop.

There, standing before him, was a tall figure dressed in armour decorated with indigos and orange. It was nothing like the other Galra around him, but Keith wasn’t stupid enough to let his guard down.

The figure seemed to regard him for a moment, before raising a broadsword in the air. Once again, Keith changed his bayard into a sword and met the figure head-on.

….

Shiro was surrounded by the witch, crouched down and protecting his side. Allura had absolutely no idea  _ how _ this witch ripped through the armour like that, but she was absolutely done with all of this.

Her Paladins were hurting, and despite that, still tried to get to her when she was trapped in the heart of enemy territory, the one thing they wanted to avoid. She was  _ beyond _ furious at this point, feeling it all build up within her to the point that she felt hot.

Her eyes locked onto the real version of Haggar, though she could feel those druids coming up behind them too. “Hunk, enemies behind us. Stop them.” She had the witch.

Hunk spun around with zero hesitation and started rapidly firing on them. He might have been a gentle soul, but his weapon was made for destruction more than any of the others.

Except, perhaps, for the one still in Zarkon’s hand. She hoped that none of her paladins  _ ever _ had to face it. Allura would do anything in her power to stand between these monsters and them.

That was why she threw herself into the fray. It was almost like watching things happen in slow motion, with Haggar reaching for Shiro. Allura instinctively gathered the energy around her and within her, and reached out, pushing it out of her hand. The pink light slammed into Haggar, and for a moment it looked like something dark and sickly actually pulsed  _ out _ of her body before going back in. The damage was done though, and she was thrown backwards.

Shiro leapt up from the ground, arm glowing as he attacked. He never met his target, stumbling as she vanished. Just like that, they were plunged into silence, barring the constant scream of the sirens.

All three of them stood still before Hunk asked, “Where did the scary lady go?”

Hunk’s voice spurred them back into motion as Shiro slumped to the floor, and Allura rushed to his side to help him up. His grey eyes met hers, and Allura wanted to cry because he  _ felt _ like he was in so much pain. It exuded in his quintessence, overtaking him far more than he let it seem. The fact that Shiro was so good at hiding pain was heartbreaking on its own.

“Let me help,” she muttered, reaching out to brush her fingers against his head. When she was younger, she insisted that she wanted to learn how to wield alchemy like her father had, using it for engineering. It was fascinating, but more than anything now, Allura desperately wished she had learned healing instead.

She knew the bare minimum, and used that to try and soothe Shiro’s pain, but just looking at his side, she knew it wouldn’t be enough. They needed to get him back into a pod to heal the damage, and to clear out whatever magic was infused into the wound.

“Hunk,” she spoke up, “you help Shiro. We must get back to the castle immediately.”

“I need to get to Black,” Shiro agreed, and she scowled at him.

“You will do no such thing, you will return to the castle and go straight to the healing pods,” she insisted as Hunk helped him up.

“We need Voltron,” he insisted, his voice strained as they hurried. “Or as many lions as we can.”

Ah, he must have been too distracted to hear that Keith was up. Allura wasn’t going to tell him, but, well, she had to know if they needed to rescue yet another person. “Coran, did Keith make it back?”

“He turned off the tractor beam and uploaded the virus,” Coran answered swiftly. “He seems to be moving towards the exit now.”

“ _ He’s here _ ?” Shro asked, almost hysterically. He struggled a little bit with Hunk, but the younger of the two didn’t let him go, and kept moving forward. “Why isn’t he responding to anything?”

“If you sent him out too quickly, his new armour likely wasn’t calibrated to our comms system,” Pidge noted. “We all had to do that earlier, remember?”

Allura was more than a little confused. What happened that they all needed to get rid of their armour? Seriously, she couldn’t leave them alone even for a  _ tick _ , could she?

She took out every sentry that came their way, not wanting to mess up after last time. Luck was on their side for once, and they managed to get to the Yellow Lion without getting caught again.

“We need to find Keith,” Shiro muttered, sounding almost delirious.

“No need, Mama Red is on the move,” Pidge informed them, which could have been good or bad. Still, if Red was going for Keith, it meant that they could just get Shiro back to the castle.

As soon as Yellow closed his mouth behind them, Allura felt a pressure vanish. Sheer relief came over her, because this was a safe place. They would be okay now, she just knew it.

Allura steadied Shiro, allowed Hunk to hurry ahead of them. By the time she got them to the cockpit, they were already taking off, the other two lions flanking them quickly.

That was when Allura got her first look at Keistungz as a whole, and her heart  _ ached _ . This is where Altea once was, and now it was nothing but cold, soulless metal.

She would  _ never _ forgive the Galra for this. Not a single one of them.

_ Never _ .

…

Keith gritted his teeth as he parried the blow from the boardsword, a weapon that would have been a lot more powerful than his if it wasn’t for what they were made of. It was still an impressive sword, but he really didn’t have time for this.

He ducked underneath the Galra, and couldn’t help but feel that he was being tested. Like this person was biding time, or trying to parse him out. Keith didn’t like either one of those ideas, but he certainly wasn’t going to back down from this fight.

“Interesting,” a male voice came from the figure as he once again dodged Keith’s strike. His voice was smooth, with an air of cockiness and the intelligence to back it up. “You’re more aggressive than I expected for someone chosen by Altea’s greatest weapon. More like a Galra.”

That wasn’t the first time someone told Keith that, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. What did this guy expect from him?

_ No _ , Red whispered into his mind, halting his anger.

Keith glowered at the man, wishing that he could see more than the reflection on his helmet. There was something calculatingly dangerous to this person, he just knew it. Now wasn’t the time to pursue that thought though.

He backed away, and the Galra stepped towards him in turn. Keith stopped right at the edge, staring at his opponent for another moment, trying to memorize as much as he could.

Then he took a step back and pushed off into space, not falling, but flying backwards pretty quickly. Red shot up from underneath him, maw open. As soon as he was within her, gravity returned, and his head felt clearer than before. He felt almost like himself again, and took off towards the cockpit.

Despite feeling a little more centered now that he was back in his lion, Keith was still a little unsettled. Something wasn’t right about the person he just encountered.

Why did it feel like that person let him go?

…

Getting back to the castle was no easy feat. There were so many ships outside, shooting at them and maneuvering around them. The castle’s defenses were better than before, but not good enough to keep this up for too long, especially since they  _ couldn’t _ get out.

Hunk turned sharply, wincing as Yellow shuddered from the impact of crashing through one of the small cruisers. Those things were actually pretty flimsy, weren’t they? They probably couldn’t do much damage if they tried to crash into other ships or shields on purpose.

“Shiro!” It took everything that he had not to look back at his two passengers, but from Allura’s distressed tone, he knew that it had to be bad. The best thing he could do was try to get back to the castle, but any time he approached the shield, he was swarmed.

“What’s happening?” he asked, voice strained.

“I’m okay,” Shiro replied, and wow, just from his voice alone, Hunk knew that he was not at all okay.

“You are  _ not _ ,” Allura snapped at him. “You don’t have to be so…nonchalant about it!” She sounded like she was either going to lose it or cry, and Hunk wasn’t sure which was worse.

“Allura.” The finality in his voice prompted Hunk to look over his shoulder briefly, which was enough time to get hit by more gunfire. “I’ve been dying and in pain for a long time. I can handle this.”

_ What _ ? What the heck did Shiro mean by he’d been dying for a long time? Was this his morbid sense of humour?

“And I’m going to stop it,” Allura insisted fiercely. “I will. I don’t know how, but I will.” She got up and stumbled forward, latching onto Hunk’s seat. “We need to get out of here.”

“I’m trying,” he replied through gritted teeth. Red zipped by him, weaving in and out of fighters with a grace that made Hunk jealous. He could sort of see where Lance was coming from when he went on about Keith being Mr. Perfect, because he was in a coma like an hour ago.

Hunk pushed that aside, because that wasn’t fair and he needed to focus. He looked towards the shield around the castle, an idea piecing together. “Coran? Is it possible to lower just a small piece of the shield?”

“Of course,” he replied instantly over the comms. “Then you can get the lions through.”

He eyed the dogfight in the works. Yeah, no, that wasn’t happening. “Not that. It’s just…Allura, you still have your helmet, right? We could theoretically get you close then like, launch you in while we keep fighting to cover you? I know that the lions all have those little emergency gliders to propel you through space. Cause I’m not getting in.” He’d found those, along with the bedrooms and so much more, when he was looking through Yellow.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hunk could see Allura tense, and she knew that he was worried about Shiro. Before he could assure her that it’d be okay, and that Shiro was just too injured to go with her, the man himself spoke up.

“Go.” His voice was firm and unwavering. “We can’t get out of here without you in the castle. The sooner you get a wormhole open, the sooner we can get out of here.”

There was a pause, and then she straightened up some. “Alright. Get me as close as you can, and I’ll go wait for launch.”

Hunk took a deep breath as she walked away, and heard Shiro shuffle closer to him, holding onto the seat. “You made the right choice.”

“I’m sorry I can’t get you to Black,” he answered as he approached the shield. “You ready for the Princess, Coran?”

“Ready when you are,” he answered.

In a quick move, Hunk got Yellow to open his mouth as he swung around. The momentum flung Allura forward, guided by the propulsion system that he really wanted to have a closer look at. A small spot in the castle’s shield opened, and he felt like he could breathe again. They were going to get out of here.

“Did she get in?” Lance asked, startling Hunk a bit. He forgot that they were on open comms and everyone could hear them right now.

“Yeah,” Shiro answered for him. “Group up. Stay close to the castle so we can go when it goes.” He hissed in pain, clutching his side a bit, and Hunk felt his pulse spike. They needed to get out of here to help him.

…

Several things happened at once. The mice started jumping around excitedly. Allura burst onto the bridge in a flurry of motion. Keith’s voice came over the comms from inside of Red’s cockpit. The Black Lion roared from its hangar. It was all just a confusing mess to Coran.

“I’m going to put them through so much training when we get to a safe place,” Allura said, eyes focused on the lions for a moment before she turned back to her station. Her hair and suit were an absolute mess and she exuded exhaustion, but there was no time to coddle her now. The mice seemed to soothe her a little as they climbed up onto her shoulders.

“I can get a wormhole open,” Allura assured him after a moment. “But we need that shield down.”

“We’re on it,” Shiro answered, and his voice sounded pained even to Coran. What had that poor boy gone through. “Paladins, I know we’re all tired and injured, and we don’t have Voltron, but we need to bring it down, even if it means taking the entire world down too.”

Coran brought up the screens to see each of them, and grimaced. Every single one of them looked exhausted, like they were ready to collapse. They also looked fiercely determined, like the warriors paladins needed to be instead of five young people who stumbled into something much bigger than them.

The lions wove in and around all of the ships, trying to make their way to one another, when something beyond stunning happened. The barrier closing them in just…shut off.

They were all stunned for a second before Allura yelled, “Get in the castle, hurry!”

Yes, it was probably best not to look a gifted yelmor in the mouth. Coran ran back to his spot in the castle, preparing to lock the hangars the second the lions landed, and then launch the ship into whatever wormhole Allura created. It didn’t matter where they went, so long as it was safe.

Few things ever go according to plan though, because as soon as the wormhole opened, and the lions got into the closest open hangars, energy struck their escape path. It didn’t close it, but it pulsed dangerously. It was too late to stop the castleship as it was pulled through and they lost complete control.

Allura screamed as she was thrown backwards, clutching her mice close to her chest as Coran caught her in turn.

The alarms in the castle blared wildly, and Coran looked up at the monitors, horror striking him when he realized that the doors to the hangars were still open. From the force of the wormhole, all of the lions were ripped out and thrown in different directions. He could hear the Paladins calling out to one another before their comms all went dead.

“No!” Allura screamed, but fell down again when she tried to get up. They both slid across the floor as the castleship fishtailed back and forth.

Then everything went completely still and quiet. The type of quiet that made Coran realize that he was used to hearing the quiet thrum of energy. It was the subtle sounds that made it so they were never truly in pure silence, not like this. The ones that people didn’t realize until they were gone.

Allura looked back at him, her own terror obvious as the castle was plunged into darkness.

…

They watched the wormhole close from a safe distance, blending into the chaos to make their getaway as soon as they could.

“So, that was Voltron?” his tallest general asked from her station.

“Not very impressive,” came another voice.

“No, not Voltron, but the lions that form it,” he answered, his voice calm as he thought about everything that had transpired. “Most of them, that is.”

“Was it worth coming when the call went out?” He glanced back, meeting the curious blue eyes of his most trusted general. Was it worth it to sneak back when the order for warships to return to Keistungz had gone out?

He leaned against the armrest of his seat as he pulled up two recordings that they managed to capture while on their small mission. The one that he fought being doused in a lethal amount of quintessence. The woman who wielded magic, and whose name was written in ancient Altean texts.

Observing them for a moment, he hoped that Voltron got out of wherever the Witch sent them with her corrupt wormhole. 

Lotor’s lips tipped up into a smirk. “Oh yes, it definitely was.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd we're done! Thank you so much for following along with me for this story so far! As of right now, I DO intend on writing the second one, though I doubt I'll meet my goal for next month. We'll see how it goes, but I'll update on my socials! 
> 
> So, what did you think? Did you see *that* ending coming? I know my beta didn't. She had "words" with me about this chapter. XD 
> 
> A huge thank you to her for going through these monster chapters, and a huge thank you to all of you. I seriously wouldn't have had the inspiration to update without you guys!
> 
> Anyone want to speculate what's going to happen next? I've very clearly set a different beginning for the second one! 
> 
> All my socials:  
> [Tumblr](https://storiesbeyondthestars.tumblr.com/) |[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storiesbeyondthestars/) |[Stellar Sierras Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/stellarsierras/) |[Twitter](https://twitter.com/storiesbeyond1)
> 
> Story betaed by: [Silvamoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvamoon/pseuds/Silvamoon)

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to part one of Contrasting Constellations, titled Gathering Nebulas. This is a novelization of season one of Voltron: Legendary Defender. This prologue is short, but all the chapters that are coming are a minimum of 15K. Release of chapters will be slow, but the first chapter will be released next Saturday. After that, my plan is once a month unless I get very far ahead in my writing.
> 
> The beginning is very similar to VLD, and any dialogue you recognize the shows was not written by me and I lay no claim to it. There are divergences and different scenarios very early on. All romantic ships will come later, as the more important focus is on friendship, family, and self discovery. 
> 
> This has been a year in the making so far (and I'm not even close to done), so I hope that you guys like it!


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